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THE CHURCH & 
YOUNG MEN 


A STUDY OF THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION AND 
NATURE OF YOUNG MEN, AND MODERN 
AGENCIES FOR THEIR IMPROVEMENT 


FRANK GRAVES CRESSEY, Ph.D. 

n 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON, D.D. 
Professor of Sociology in the University of Chicago 



CHICAGO NEW YORK TORONTO 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
LONDON AND EDINBURGH 














Copyright, 1903, by 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
{December) 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

JAN 25 1904 

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Chicago: 63 Washington Street 
New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Toronto: 27 Richmond Street W 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 30 St.Mary Street 


\ 

v. 







TO 

YOUNG MEN 

AND ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN 
PROMOTING 

THEIR SPIRITUAL WELFARE 













INTRODUCTION 


This essay hardly needs an introduction, for 
the appetizing menu in the table of contents will 
attract those who have interest in the subject. 
That religion is a universal interest, an essential 
element in rational life, is assumed by the writer, 
and he leaves apologetics to others while he seeks 
the best combination of forms, agents, and devices 
for helping youth to enter into the life which is 
life indeed. 

Two obstacles hinder the progress of the church 
and discourage those who believe that religious 
indifference means missing the best that the 
universe can afford to man. These obstacles are 
the alienation of urban wage-workers and the 
estrangement of young men. It is altogether 
likely that many persons in both classes have 
more religion than they profess, and many cer¬ 
tainly resent being taken for atheists simply 
because they put a distance between themselves 
and ecclesiastical expression of the deepest emo¬ 
tions and the most sacred convictions. 

At the same time there is another large num¬ 
ber of boys and young men who need the restraint, 
the idealism, the conviction, the consciousness of 
God which they can find only in the companion¬ 
ship of the devout. To these mutiny against insti¬ 
tutional religion is only one expression of the 
v 


VI 


INTRODUCTION 


utter rebellion against the good, the sane, the 
pure. 

How can we win the wage-workers and the 
young men? Every really sincere Christian is 
vexing his soul with this question. As it happens 
most young men in our cities are wage-workers, 
and both aspects of the problem coalesce. 

The writer of the essay has had experience as a 
pastor, and he here brings together the sugges¬ 
tions of many men who have had a measure of 
success. He gives the outlines of a large study, 
and brings into relations with old material many 
hints fresh from the field of practice and service. 
May this product of earnest and honest toil be 
found helpful and full of blessing to the church 
of God and thus to mankind. 

Charles Richmond Henderson. 




PREFACE 


The purpose of this study is to afford some help 
to those who are engaged in promoting, either 
directly or indirectly, the spiritual welfare of 
young men. It is a working handbook of prac¬ 
tical methods, rather than a philosophical discus¬ 
sion of theoretical principles. 

The information and opinions have been 
gathered at first hand from successful leaders of 
young men in all the principal denominations 
and in all sections of the United States. The 
questionnaire method was employed, over two 
thousand schedules being sent to pastors, super¬ 
intendents, secretaries, college officials, and 
others, including many to young men themselves. 
These schedules were of seven kinds and con¬ 
tained from thirty to sixty questions, mostly con¬ 
cerning matters of fact but also calling for 
opinions. Nearly six hundred were returned (one 
hundred and thirty being from the young men), 
and the replies were analyzed and tabulated. 
Several hundred reports and other forms of printed 
matter were also received and considered. The 
following pages, therefore, not only present fresh 
and reliable facts but also valuable opinions. 

To the many who have thus generously given 
their cooperation, often at no small sacrifice of 
vii 


VU1 


PREFACE 


valuable time, grateful acknowledgment of large 
indebtedness is hereby made, chief among them 
being the writer’s valued friend and instructor, 
Dr. Henderson. 

It has, of course, been impossible to present 
all the agencies in the United States which are 
engaged in promoting the spiritual welfare of 
young men, and the omission of some is not 
necessarily to their disparagement. All the 
principal methods have, however, been given, as 
far as discovered in the course of many months 
of wide and careful investigation. 

Many books have been consulted and a list of 
those considered valuable, together with all men¬ 
tioned in the text, will be found at the close. 
Quotations of Scripture are from the American 
Standard edition of the Revised Version. Books 
have been cited and frequent addresses given in 
order to aid those who may wish to make further 
investigation in this great field, of which this 
professes to be only a general survey. 

A constant effort has been made throughout 
this study to exercise judicial fairness in estimat¬ 
ing the value of the agencies discussed. Wher¬ 
ever adverse criticism has seemed necessary it 
has been freely made, but always with a due 
appreciation of the good accomplished and an 
earnest desire to increase the efficiency of the 
means under consideration. The worth of each 
has been measured not from the point of view of 
its own immediate interest, nor that of any par- 




PREFACE 


IX 


ticular church or denomination. Rather has the 
standpoint, in keeping with the aim, been the 
higher one of the promotion of the spiritual 
welfare of young men. The dominant spirit is 
therefore sympathetically constructive, rather 
than critically destructive. 

Although the study was undertaken primarily 
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the 
degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Divinity 
School of the University of Chicago, this aim has 
constantly been the controlling motive. If it 
shall prove to be of service in advancing the 
interests of the kingdom of Christ among young 
men, it will have attained its chief object. 

The University of Chicago, 

September , igoj. 





TABLE OF CONTENTS 


I. The Spiritual Condition of Young Men . . i 

Considered from the— 

A. Standpoint of their own welfare .... i 

B. Standpoint of the welfare of society ... 7 

II. The Spiritual Nature of Young Men . . . . ii 

A. The scientific study of religious life ... 11 

B. Birth.14 

1. Its necessity.14 

2. How it comes.15 

1) Primary conditions.16 

2) Secondary conditions . . . . 17 

(1) Age.17 

(2) Physical and mental 

changes.18 

C. Growth.20 

1. Physiological characteristics . . . . 21 

2. Psychological characteristics .... 22 

D. Standards of judgment.24 

III. The Church Proper.25 

A. Why do not young men go to church? . . 25 

1. Replies from pastors.26 

2. Replies from young men.28 

3. Summary.29 

B. The pastor.31 

C. Preaching.33 

D. Public worship.41 

E. The prayer-meeting.43 

xi 


















Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS 


IV. The Sunday-school.45 

A. Historical statement. 45 

B. Definition.47 

C. A failure, with some causes and suggestions 48 

1. The failure to hold young men ... 48 

2. Some causes.50 

1) Young men themselves .... 50 

2) Deficient home training ...51 

3) Absence of adults.52 

4) Separation of church and school. 5 2 

5) Non-conversion of boys . ... 54 

6) Lack of male teachers .... 56 

7) Poor teaching.56 

3. Some suggestions.58 

1) The lesson.58 

2) Grading.60 

3) Questions.61 

4) Mixed classes.62 

5) Sex of teacher.62 

6) Time of meeting.63 

7) Separate room.64 

D. Organized classes.64 

1. Class Number Eight.65 

2. The Vaughn Class.70 

3. The Baraca Class and Union .... 74 

4. Other classes.79 

V. The Young People’s Society.85 

A. General survey.85 

B. Purpose.88 

C. Membership basis.90 

D. Confession of Christ.94 

1. Value of testimony.94 

2. Compulsory testimony ... . . 95 

3. Character of testimony.97 

4. Length of meeting.99 

E. Service for Christ.100 

F. Conclusion.109 
































TABLE OF CONTENTS Xlii 


VI. The Brotherhood.113 

A. The Brotherhood of Saint Andrew . . .113 

1. History and organization.113 

2. Object.114 

3. Membership basis.115 

4. Methods.117 

B. The Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip . .118 

1. Founding and growth.118 

2. Purpose and methods.120 

3. Membership basis.121 

4. Advantages.122 

C. The Brotherhood of Saint Paul.123 

1. Object.123 

2. Principles.123 

3. Aims.124 

4. Advantages.124 

5. Growth.125 

6. Juniors.125 

7. Local organizations.125 

8. Degrees.126 

9. Results.127 

D. The Gideons.128 

1. History.128 

2. Object and methods.130 

E. The Young Men’s Presbyterian Union . . 131 

F. The Sunday Evening Club.135 

G. Pleasant Sunday Afternoons.136 

H. Other organizations.137 

VII. The Institutional Church.140 

A. Need and definition.140 

B. Methods and results.142 

1. Saint George’s Church.142 

2. Saint Bartholomew’s Church. . . . 144 

3. Judson Memorial Church.145 

4. Christ Church.148 

C. Requisites and standards of success . . .148 



































xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS 


VIII. The Young Men’s Christian Association . . .155 

A. Beginnings.156 

B. Growth.160 

C. Membership basis.163 

D. Lines of work.166 

1. Religious.166 

1) Bible study.167 

2) Religious meetings.168 

3) Personal work.170 

4) Shop meetings.171 

5) Office Bible classes.176 

6) Foreign missions.176 

2. Educational.177 

3. Physical.180 

4. Social.181 

E. Special classes.182 

1. Students.182 

2. Railroad men.186 

3. Traveling men.188 

4. Wage-earners.188 

5. Army and navy.190 

6. Colored men.191 

7. North American Indians.191 

8. Boys.192 

F. Training schools.192 

G. Women’s auxiliaries.193 

H. Young men not reached.194 

I. Relation to the churches.197 

IX. The Salvation Army.208 

A. Rise and progress.208 

B. Work in the United States.213 

X. The Roman Catholic Church.221 

A. General situation.221 

B. The Sodality. 223 

C. The Young Men’s Institute.223 



































TABLE OF CONTENTS 


XV 


The Roman Catholic Church— Continued 

D. Temperance societies.224 

1. The Catholic Total Abstinence Union 224 

2. The Knights of Father Mathew. . .224 

E. Fraternal organizations.226 

1. The Knights of Columbus.226 

2. The Catholic Order of Foresters . . 227 

Bibliography.228 












The Church and Young Men 
CHAPTER I 

THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF YOUNG MEN 

Inasmuch as the primary purpose of this study 
is the promotion of the spiritual welfare of 
young men it is essential at the outset to have 
some conception of their condition. All who 
are at all familiar with the problems of the spirit¬ 
ual life will recognize two difficulties: first, to 
determine what conditions exist; and second, to 
express them in any reasonably adequate manner. 
The difficulty is not only inherent in the facts 
themselves, but equally in the investigator’s 
personal bias, which is usually strong and probably 
never capable either of total elimination or of 
exact calculation. It may be true that “figures 
do not lie,” but they often fail of correctly rep¬ 
resenting the conditions on which they are based. 
Nevertheless they are of much value in such a 
case as this, and at least give a fairly accurate 
representation of general facts and tendencies. 
With this word of caution, some are here given. 

A. FROM THE STANDPOINT OF YOUNG MEN 

According to the census of 1900, the pop¬ 
ulation of the United States, exclusive of the 


1 


2 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


island possessions, was 75,994,575, of whom 13,- 
432,928, or 17.8 per cent, were young men be¬ 
tween the ages of sixteen and thirty-five in¬ 
clusive, the age limits to be observed throughout 
this study. Assuming the same rate of increase 
in the subsequent three years as in the preced¬ 
ing ten, the total population now is approxi¬ 
mately 80,500,000, of whom 14,250,000 are young 
men. 

According to the census of 1890, the total 
membership of all churches, counting only com¬ 
municants, was 20,612,000. Similar statistics were 
not secured in the census of 1900, but in January 
of that year Dr. H. K. Carroll, who had charge 
of such work in the census of 1890, estimated 
the total church membership at 27,710,000. 

There are now approximately 29,000,000 mem¬ 
bers, of whom practically all are twelve years 
old and over. The total population of this age 
is approximately 56,000,000; from which it 
appears that of the entire number of persons 
commonly considered old enough to enter into 
such relations 51.8 per cent, or a little over one- 
half, are church members. The discrepancy 
between this ratio and that commonly given, 
one-third, is due to the fact that the latter is 
based on the total population, from one day up, 
which is manifestly unfair to the cause of relig¬ 
ion. 

Reports from seventy-eight churches, repre¬ 
senting the leading Protestant denominations in 



SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF YOUNG MEN 3 


all parts of the land, show that in a total mem¬ 
bership of 43*635 the young men number 7,819, 
or 17.9 percent. On this basis, which is certainly 
not below normal, since many of these churches 
are especially successful in this direction, there 
are 5,191,000 young men who are church mem¬ 
bers, or 36.4 per cent of the total number of 
young men. The discrepancy between this and 
the ratio previously given for the whole popu¬ 
lation of the church age, 51.8 per cent, is in 
line with the familiar fact that almost uniformly 
men are decidedly in the minority in the 
churches. In the seventy-eight before referred 
to the proportion is thirty-seven men to sixty- 
three women, which is substantially the same 
as discovered by other students of this prob¬ 
lem. 

Forty pastors reported that out of a total 
average morning attendance of 14,088, 2,744, or 
20 per cent, were young men, while the figures 
for the evening were respectively 15,954, 4,768, 
and 30 per cent. Now these forty churches had 
23,015 members, making the average evening 
attendance of young men equal to 20 per cent 
of the membership. On the estimated basis of 
29,000,000 church members, there are then nearly 
6,000,000 young men that do attend church ser* 
vices to some extent, very many of them with 
great faithfulness. 

That young men, indeed, are as a class more 
faithful in this regard than their elders seems 




4 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


clear from a study of nearly four thousand mem¬ 
bers of the central department of the Chicago 
Young Men’s Christian Association. At sixteen 
the percentage of church attendance is the highest, 
the ratio decreasing gradually and reaching its 
lowest point after thirty-five. 1 That young men 
are less at fault than others in the matter of church 
attendance is also evident from the figures 
already given, showing that while they constitute 
18 per cent of the church membership they make 
up 20 per cent and 30 per cent respectively of 
the morning and evening congregations. They 
are, of course, ordinarily more free from the home 
cares that often keep their elders away from 
church, but we are here concerned with the 
fact, not with its explanation. 

Young men, therefore, are by no means as 
largely at fault in this matter as they are com¬ 
monly represented to be. The situation is very 
far from being as bad as it is painted by those 
gloomy prophets—false prophets, rather—who 
would have it that the world is growing worse. 
It is bad enough to be sure, but no one can read 
the history of the nineteenth century with open 
eyes and an unprejudiced mind without seeing 
the great advance not simply in the outer and 
material forms of civilization but in its inner and 
moral content. One needs only to consider that 
in 1800 only 7 per cent of the total population of 


l The Religious Condition of Young Men, p. 37. 




SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF YOUNG MEN 5 


the United States were church members, 1 whereas 
to-day the ratio is 36 per cent, the members in¬ 
creasing from 364,000 to 29,000,000. Not only 
has there been this great gain in numbers, but 
there has also been a great increase inactivity, as 
indicated by the rise of foreign missions, the mod¬ 
ern Sunday-school, young people’s societies, 
brotherhoods, Young Men’s Christian Asso¬ 
ciations, and kindred movements, in all of which 
young men have a large and honorable share. 
The churches are by no means few in which 
they are the chief elements of strength, both 
in numbers and service. 

Turning from this brighter view of the spirit¬ 
ual condition of the young men in our land, which 
is too often left out of account, we must consider 
also the darker side. 

From these investigations it appears that the 
large majority of young men, or 9,059,000 out of ) 
14,250,000, are outside of church membership. 
Even after allowing a large margin for those who 
are not members but attend religious services at 
least occasionally, it is safe to say that fully one- 
half are wholly outside of church fellowship or 
direct influence. On the other hand, it is all too 
evident that vast numbers of young men are lead¬ 
ing lives of positive immorality and are under the 
influence of forces that are working their temporal 
and eternal ruin. The following statement makes 
this all too evident: “On Sunday evening, Feb- 


1 The Growth of the Kingdom of God, p. 139. 







6 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


ruary 26, 1899, a careful count was made of men 
in a Madison Street (Chicago) saloon at seven 
o’clock. The number was 524, and during the 
next two hours 480 more entered. At one of 
thebilliardtables young men six deep on all sides 
were engaged in open gambling. Private stair¬ 
ways connect this saloon with the vilest theater 
in the city. The attendance of men from about 
fifteen to forty-five years of age at seventeen 
theaters the same evening was 17,160, the larger au¬ 
diences being found in the most degrading places. 

“Continuing the enumeration of destructive 
forces, we must add the houses of ill repute. In 
one ward there are 312 such houses, with 1,708 
inmates. It is believed that there are not less 
than 1,000 men in the city who make it their bus¬ 
iness to lure men to these places. There are 
probably not less than 50,000 men directly 
engaged in public places of resort commonly held 
to be demoralizing and criminal in tendency. It 
is thus seen that of the total male population 
about one in twenty is engaged in an occupation 
which tends to ruin young manhood.” 1 

These figures could doubtless be duplicated, 
with little change save for differences of popula¬ 
tion, for well nigh every city in the land. Similar 
facts indeed have been collected in many cities 
and published in Dying at the Top , a little book 
that is worth reading by all young men and those 
who are interested in their welfare. No one who 


1 The Religious Condition of Young Men, pp. n, 12. 





SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF YOUNG MEN 7 


is even in the slightest degree conscious of the 
religious and moral condition of millions of our 
young men can fail to see how momentous is the 
situation from the standpoint of their own good. 
That alone ought to be enough to arouse the 
interest and enlist the cooperation of all right- 
minded persons. 

B. FROM THE STANDPOINT OF SOCIETY 

But there is another side of equal importance. 
The welfare of society as a whole, no less than 
of young men as a class, demands serious thought 
upon the situation and strenuous effort for its bet¬ 
terment. 

One of the marked phases of this age, espe¬ 
cially in our own land, is the increasing propor¬ 
tion of young men in places of responsibility. 
On every hand they are pressing rapidly to the 
front. The rise of The Man from Glengarry from 
a backwoods farm hand to the manager of a large 
industry and adviser in the affairs of a new empire, 
has many counterparts in real life. For the 
young man, eager to attain high success in the 
shortest possible time, this is indeed an era of 
golden opportunities. With all the outcry against 
modern business methods as affording no oppor¬ 
tunity for individual progress, it is well to remem¬ 
ber that, as said by the editor of the Review of 
Reviews , Dr. Albert Shaw, in a University Con¬ 
vocation address at Chicago in March, 1902, 
“There has never been a time in the history of our 
country when money counted for so little and the 



8 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


man for so much.” In support of this, he cited 
the facts that while the rate of interest on invest¬ 
ments of unquestioned stability has never been 
so low (witness the recent refunding of a part of 
the debt of the United States at 2 per cent), salaries 
for men of unquestioned ability and integrity have 
never been so high. 

But these great opportunities for young men 
carry grave responsibilities. It is a truism that the 
future of the nation is in their hands, and not less 
so a large measure of its present. And what they 
do as citizens of this great and rapidly growing 
republic not only vitally affects its welfare but has 
a large and increasing part in determining that of 
the world as well. Will they be equal to the 
task before them? Will they so shape the affairs 
of this nation—industrial, commercial, political, 
educational, religious, and every other part of its 
many-sided life, that it shall not only continue 
itself to be blessed but in increasing measure to 
be a blessing to all mankind? 

The answer to this question rests in the last 
analysis upon one qualification in the young men 
themselves. As perhaps never before in our his¬ 
tory, emphasis is being laid upon the physical 
nature. A strong healthy body is more than ever 
seen to be not merely a fortunate possession, but 
an absolute requisite to the highest success in 
the ever fiercer struggle of life. The young man 
whose bodily force is in any way impaired is seri¬ 
ously handicapped. 




SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF YOUNG MEN 9 


Present conditions are also demanding the 
utmost mental strength. The best discipline that 
school and college can give is more and more seen 
to be of great advantage to the merchant or manu¬ 
facturer or skilled artisan, as well as to the pro¬ 
fessional man. Young men who have been trained 
to think clearly, concisely and quickly are in 
demand—“none others need apply.” 

But the chief qualification upon which the 
answer to this question depends is neither physical 
nor intellectual, though each of these has an im¬ 
portance which is not likely to be overestimated 
absolutely, however much it may be exaggerated 
relatively. In his Social Evolution Mr. Kidd has 
clearly shown that the fundamental factor in deter¬ 
mining the permanence and progress of a nation 
is not material nor mental, else would Rome and 
Athens have continued even until now in the 
glory of their world-supremacy. Rather is that 
fundamental factor moral. It was moral decay 
that was the bottom cause of the downfall of both 
of these proud nations, each of which was in some 
respects the equal if not the superior of our 
own. 

As with the nation so with the individual 
members. It is not cash, nor craft, nor culture, 
but character that in the last analysis, on the whole 
and in the long run, determines the outcome of 
life, decides the measure of its real success. It is 
of the first importance then that the young men 
upon whom are being laid in ever larger meas- 



IO 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


ure such great responsibilities for the present and 
future of our nation, aye of the world, shall be 
fitted not only in body and mind but in heart and 
soul as well for the performance of their great 
tasks. 

Thus it appears that the welfare of our whole 
social structure, equally with that of young men 
themselves, demands not only a careful consider¬ 
ation of their condition but the wise use of the 
best possible means for their spiritual betterment. 
Herein lies the reason for this study, 




CHAPTER II 


THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF YOUNG MEN 

A. THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGIOUS LIFE 

In recent years much attention has been paid to 
the study of religious life from the standpoint of 
psychology. To some it has seemed but little 
short of sacrilegious that the deepest experiences 
of the human spirit should thus be made the 
object of scientific research. To others it has 
seemed to be a limiting of the divine Spirit to 
attempt to mark out the laws in accordance with 
which He works. Inasmuch as this whole study 
assumes the rightfulness of such research, it may 
not be amiss to consider the question here. 

Do spiritual phenomena owe their existence 
to forces no less real than those which underlie 
physical phenomena, and do these forces act, 
equally with the physical, in accordance with cer¬ 
tain established laws? Is the spiritual realm a 
chaos or a cosmos? Is it law-less or law-ful? 
And if a cosmos, if lawful, what is the nature of 
its laws? 

It is not strange that some have misunderstood 
such investigations. It has taken centuries to 
establish the existence and determine the opera¬ 
tion of natural laws. To the unlearned mind the 


12 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


material world is simply a chaos of events, with¬ 
out established order of sequence. Our more 
enlightened conception of natural events as hav¬ 
ing each its place in a cosmos, a universe where 
law reigns, is the heritage from many generations 
of men of science, who have toiled on patiently 
in the search for truth despite the cavils of the 
ignorant and the persecutions of the fanatical, 
the latter too often under the false guise of reli¬ 
gion. And not only do we recognize these events 
as happening in accordance with those definite 
methods of procedure which with unfortunate 
ambiguity are called laws, as though they were 
similar to either divine or human statutes, but we 
see in them the outward manifestation of indwell¬ 
ing forces, which in turn are but parts of the divine 
force, the Creator immanent in creation. 

From the recognized fact, established at so 
great a cost, that the divine Spirit works in the 
realm of nature according to law, we should 
reasonably expect to find that He works likewise 
in the realm of spirit. Surely it would be strange 
if He who through unknown centuries of orderly 
procedure has, by physical means and in accord¬ 
ance with established laws, effected a man’s first 
birth and provided for his growth to the stature 
of physical manhood, should not proceed likewise 
by spiritual means and in accordance with estab¬ 
lished laws to effect his second birth and provide 
for his growth to the stature of spiritual man¬ 
hood, as revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. To say 




SPIRITUAL NATURE OF YOUNG MEN 13 


that he does not so proceed is to charge the 
Creator with arbitrariness and fickleness worthy of 
a petty despot, and to affirm that while in the 
lower realm of physical things everything pro¬ 
ceeds in an orderly fashion, in the spiritual realm 
there is only the working of chance and caprice. 

That spiritual phenomena are not the result 
of chance and caprice, but that the Creator 
works in accordance with established methods 
of procedure here no less than in the realm of 
physical things, is supported not merely by the 
argument from analogy, as above, but is affirmed 
by the results of careful scientific investigations, 
such as those recorded in Professor Starbuck’s 
Psychology of Religion , and Professor Coe’s Spirit¬ 
ual Life. There is no sacrilege in investigating 
spiritual facts, any'more than in “considering 
the lilies of the field, how they grow.” There 
is no putting of limitations upon the divine 
Spirit in attempting to discover the laws in ac¬ 
cordance with which He deals with human 
spirits, any more than in trying to find out His 
method of procedure in causing the lily to 
bloom. The soul and the flower are alike the 
workmanship of their Creator, and the better 
understanding of the work will in each case 
lead to a better knowledge of the Worker, 
“whom to know aright is life eternal.” 

There are established laws, uniform methods 
of procedure, fixed sequences of cause and effect, 
in the spiritual realm no less than in the physical, 



14 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


and he who would win the souls of young men 
must be patient to discover and wise to apply 
them. Here, as so often, science renders large 
service to the cause of religion, and to ignore its 
help is little short of criminal. What some of 
these laws are we now consider. 

B. BIRTH 

The greatest of teachers, who knew human 
nature better than any other member of the race, 
said long ago, “Except one be born anew he 
cannot see the kingdom of God.” As the first 
birth is the prime requisite of physical life, so 
is the second birth the prime requisite of spirit¬ 
ual life. To it therefore attention is first 
directed. 

i. Its necessity. The words of the great Teacher 
are sufficient to establish this and they are worthy 
of careful study. It is to be noted that He does 
not say “may not” nor “shall not,” but“can not. ” 
He is not laying down a statute, is not making a 
requirement, based on His own or His Father’s 
authority, but is rather stating a simple fact which 
is due to a spiritual law, a sequence of cause 
and effect, ingrained in the very constitution of 
spiritual things. It is an impossibility that He 
states, not a prohibition. The gardener puts a 
seed into a pot of earth, and in due time he has 
plant and flower. But the earth did not make 
itself into the thing of beauty. Only as the life 
of the higher vegetable kingdom within the seed 




SPIRITUAL NATURE OF YOUNG MEN 15 


reached down into the lower mineral kingdom 
and laid hold upon the earth and transformed it, 
bringing it up into the higher realm, only so did 
the earth become the flower. In a real sense it 
was “born anew,” “born from above.” 

Jl So of the soul. In order that one may enter 
the kingdom of God he must be born anew, 
from above; the higher life of the divine Spirit 
must come down into his life, which another 
great teacher has said is by nature “dead in tres¬ 
passes and sins,” and, laying hold upon it, trans¬ 
form it and bring it up into the higher spiritual 
kingdom. Otherwise, it is no more possible for 
him to enter that higher kingdom than for the 
earth to become the flower without the seed. 
This is the first law of spiritual life. 1 

2. How it comes . The new birth comes to 
pass in two ways. The first is through a crisis, 
a definite and often sudden and highly emotional 
experience, in which the spirit is keenly con¬ 
scious of passing from death unto life. The 
second is rather a process, covering months and 
even years, at the end of which the spirit is no 
less fully assured of its new life than in the former 
case, though unable to point to any definite time 
of transition. 

The failure to recognize this second method 
as the work of the divine Spirit equally with 
the first, and hence equally efficacious, has been 

1 Drummond: Natural Law in the Spiritual World , chapter on 
Biogenesis. 





i6 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


a source of untold disappointment to many 
young men, who have earnestly sought the new 
life but believed themselves lost because of not 
having had the definite crisis which they have 
been wrongly taught to regard as a prerequisite 
to salvation. Supposing God to be shut up to 
a single line of action in effecting their new birth, 
they have supposed themselves shut out of His 
kingdom. Nor is the mode of procedure in 
either case by any means uniform. There is 
infinite variety in human spirits, and the divine 
Spirit, with a wisdom too often lacking in those 
who would win young men to His service, has 
regard to those variations and employs in each 
case the means best adapted to secure the end. 

There are, however, certain general conditions 
to be observed as essential to the new birth of the 
spirit no less than in the new birth of the plant. 
These may be classed as primary and secondary. 

i) Primary conditions. These are expressed in 
the familiar terms, repentance and faith. Re¬ 
pentance means more than tears. Indeed it does 
not necessarily involve tears at all, nor do they 
necessarily indicate true repentance. It is a 
complete reversal of purpose, a turning square 
about in the pathway of life, a positive abandon¬ 
ment of a previous sinward course for one that is 
Godward. Faith is far more than mere intellect¬ 
ual assent to certain religious statements; it in¬ 
volves more than the signing of a creed, no 
matter how long or orthodox. There must be 




SPIRITUAL NATURE OF YOUNG MEN 17 


not only a trust in Christ as Saviour, but an 
obedience to Christ as Sovereign. These are the 
primary conditions, the fulfillment of which by 
the human spirit insures the action of the divine 
Spirit in effecting its new birth, whereby it passes 
from a state of death in sin to life in God. This 
is the second law of spiritual life and it is the 
complement of the first. 

2) Secondary conditions. These are of high 
value as favoring the new spiritual birth, though 
not absolutely essential, as in the case of the 
foregoing. The exhaustive investigations of Pro¬ 
fessors Starbuck and Coe and others render large 
service in this connection. Their work has been, 
by the study of thousands of cases of young 
men, and others as well, to discover the human 
conditions which favor the efficient operation 
of the divine Spirit, and to formulate the results 
of their investigations in such a manner as to 
guide workers in the realm of spiritual things. 
There is space here for but brief mention of one 
or two of the most important of their conclu¬ 
sions. 

(1) Age. Long ago a wise man said, “Remem¬ 
ber also thy Creator in the days of thy youth,” 
and these studies have emphasized the wisdom 
of so doing. “Conversion does not occur with 
the same frequency at all periods in life. It be¬ 
longs almost exclusively to the years between ten 
and twenty-five. The number of instances out¬ 
side of that range are few and scattered. That 




i 8 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


is, conversion is a distinctly adolescent phe¬ 
nomenon. It is a singular fact also that within 
this period the conversions do not distribute 
themselves equally among the years. In the rough 
we may say that they begin to occur at seven 
and eight years, increase in number gradually to 
ten or eleven and then rapidly to sixteen, rapidly 
decline to twenty and gradually fall away after 
that, and become rare after thirty. One may 
say that if conversion has not occurred before 
twenty the chances are small that it will ever be 
experienced.” 1 Out of 254 men 83 per cent 
were converted at the ages of from ten to twenty 
inclusive, distributed as follows: 2 
Age: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 

Ratio: .03 .03 .05 .04 .09 .12 .13 .11 .10 .09 .04 

Professor Coe tabulates 1,784 cases of conver¬ 
sion of men, the average age being 16.4 years. 3 

(2) Physical and mental changes. This is also 
the time at which other great changes occur. 
Speaking of the years just prior to and including 
sixteen, Professor Coe says: “There takes place 
a transformation more profound than any other 
between birth and death. ... In many ways 
this is undoubtedly the most critical period in 
the whole development of the individual. . . . 
The mental development during this period is 
distinctly correlated with the physical.” 4 This 
does not at all mean that the new birth of the 


1 The Psychology of Religion , p. 28. ’Same, p. 29. 

* The Spiritual Life , p. 45. 4 Same, pp. 33, 35. 




SPIRITUAL NATURE OF YOUNG MEN 19 


physical and intellectual natures in any way 
produce the new birth of the spiritual nature, 
but rather that at the same time the conditions 
are most favorable to its occurrence. “There is 
a normal period somewhere between the inno¬ 
cence of childhood and the fixed habits of ma¬ 
turity, while the person is yet impressionable 
and has already capacity for spiritual insight, 
when conversions most frequently occur.” 1 The 
reasons for this it is aside from our purpose to 
consider, nor is it necessary in view of their 
treatment in these books, which deserve to be 
studied by all who deal with the problems of 
spiritual life. 

It is sufficient here to call attention to the 
fact that in the first few years of the period of 
life chosen for this study, the young man is at 
the age where his conversion is most likely to 
occur. After this the chances are very meager. 
This does not mean that any man, young or old, 
is ever to be wholly despaired of, for even octo¬ 
genarian conversions have occurred. But it does 
mean that the early years of a young man’s life 
are a time of golden opportunity for his experi¬ 
encing the new birth. This is the spiritual “tide 
in the affairs of men, which, taken at its flood, 
leads on to fortune,” a spiritual fortune of in¬ 
estimable worth. In all human probability he will 
come into its possession now or never. 


1 The Psychology of Religion, p. 36. 






20 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


C. GROWTH 

The great Teacher’s greatest apostle has said 
that the destiny of the human soul is “to be 
conformed to the image of God’s son.’’ Birth 
must therefore be followed by growth. Here, 
as before, first place must be given to the oper¬ 
ations of the divine Spirit. Only the power 
that gives the new life can sustain it. Men used 
to think that the Creator somehow wound up the 
material universe and then set it spinning as a 
boy does his top, and that He put enough force 
into it to keep it going while He looked on or 
turned toother affairs. But now the very science 
which has been misused to banish the Creator 
proclaims His existence in the whole creation, 
the ever-present source of all life. So of the 
human spirit in its new life. Born of the divine 
Spirit, its existence and growth are not apart from 
Him but depend upon a vital union with Him, so 
intimate as to be spoken of by the great Teacher 
as a veritable abiding in Him, like that of the 
branch in the vine, each a very part of the 
other. 

But here, as before, there are also certain 
human conditions involved which have an impor¬ 
tant bearing, and in this connection also the in¬ 
vestigations of Professors Starbuck and Coe 
render important service. Here, too, but brief 
mention can be made of their conclusions, all of 
which will repay careful study. 

The characteristics peculiar to young manhood 



SPIRITUAL NATURE OF YOUNG MEN 21 


may be classified as physiological and psycho¬ 
logical. 

i. Physiological characteristics . “It has long 
been recognized that the beginning of adolescence 
is a period of rapid physiological transformations. 
The voice changes, the beard sprouts, the propor¬ 
tions of the head are altered, the volume of the 
heart increases while that of the arteries is dimin¬ 
ished, so that the blood pressure is heightened, 
and central among the changes are those in the 
reproductive system, which make the child into 
the man.” 1 The last named alone can have more 
than bare mention and its [importance must over¬ 
ride its unpleasantness. The same author, refer¬ 
ring to extensive investigation, says: “About 
one-third of the males gave sexual temptations 
as among those of youth, and nearly always it was 
said to be the chief temptation.” 2 And Professor 
Coe adds: “It is perfectly clear that the most 
serious source of religious difficulty for adolescent 
males lies precisely in sexual irritability. ” 3 The 
spiritual ruin of multitudes of young men has been 
and is being wrought by the abuse of this phys¬ 
ical power, due in the great majority of cases to 
the criminal negligence of fathers to instruct their 
sons. 

“There can be few greater unkindnesses to a 
youth than to permit him to meet and deal with 
the profoundest fact of his physical being without 


1 The Psychology of Religion, p. 37. 3 Same, p. 70. 

• The Spiritual Life , p. 95. 






22 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


ever having received from a pure and authorita¬ 
tive source a single item of information regarding 
it.” 1 He will be sure to get it somehow, and if 
not from pure then from vicious sources, that are 
only too ready to pollute his mind and inflame his 
passions. Alcohol and nicotine have slain their 
thousands, but this demon has slain his tens of 
thousands, though usually under more polite 
names. Pastors, teachers, and all who have any 
concern for the spiritual welfare of young men 
should not hesitate to have frank and fearless 
but always tactful and sympathetic counsel with 
them. “We can do them no better service,’ * 
writes a Young Men’s Christian Association sec¬ 
retary of long experience, “next to leading them 
to definitely accept Jesus Christ as Saviour.” 

In the Bibliography the titles of a few trust¬ 
worthy books upon this important matter are given. 
A thorough knowledge of these facts and a wise 
use of that knowledge will go far toward helping 
young men in their growth to spiritual manhood. 

2. Psychological characteristics. These early years 
of young manhood are also marked by mental 
and spiritual transformations. The newly devel¬ 
oped mental powers assert themselves by boldly 
challenging all ideas previously held. It is a time 
of doubt, honest doubt, when the mind is eager 
and restless in its search for absolute truth. 
Religious beliefs do not escape its keen search¬ 
ing. For a spiritual adviser to seek to suppress 


The Spiritual Life y p. 34. 





SPIRITUAL NATURE OF YOUNG MEN 23 


such questionings as the suggestions of Satan is 
fatal. If successful, the result will be the intel¬ 
lectual and spiritual stagnation of the seeker for 
truth; if otherwise, the result will likely be not 
only the rejection of the adviser and the end of 
his influence in that quarter, but the hardening of 
an honest inquirer into a confirmed skeptic. 

More than any other period of life this is a 
time of unrest, both of mind and spirit. Doubt 
and certainty, depression and exaltation, fear and 
hope, remorse and joy—a score of conflicting 
emotions are constantly coming and going, to the 
often utter bewilderment of the inexperienced 
youth. 

Such are some of the physical and mental 
problems vitally connected with spiritual growth, 
that must be not only recognized but studied and 
mastered by all who would be of the largest 
possible service to young men in the development 
of this-highest realm of their nature. Wise indeed 
must be the guide who would lead them safely 
through these trying years. No knowledge can 
be too high, no sympathy too broad, no personal 
spiritual life too deep for this divine task. 

Since the larger part of the following pages 
will be taken up with the discussion of practical 
measures for promoting the spiritual welfare of 
young men, the foregoing will suffice for a con¬ 
sideration of some of the fundamental principles 
involved. What has been said will also suffice 
to show that they are in error who say that there 




24 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


is no “young man problem” in church work. It 
is of course true, as they claim, that in its general 
characteristics human nature is much the same 
in all persons, and that likewise the great princi¬ 
ples of religion are the same for all. But, as briefly 
indicated, young men have some special charac¬ 
teristics possessed by no others, and this fact 
makes it not only highly advantageous, but also 
absolutely necessary for achieving the largest suc¬ 
cess that some special agencies be employed for 
the application of those principles to their needs. 

D. STANDARDS OF JUDGMENT 

What has been presented in these opening chap¬ 
ters will indicate the standards by which the value 
of the methods discussed in the following ones are 
to be judged. The spiritual betterment of young 
men includes just two things: (i) their new birth 
into the kingdom of God through the work of 
the Holy Spirit, in connection with their own re¬ 
pentance and faith in Christ; (2) their growth in 
likeness to Him, “unto the measure of the stature 
of the fulness of Christ.” In proportion as any 
method promotes either of these it is good. 
Whereinsoever it fails so to do, either through lack 
of primary regard to these ends or by over-mag¬ 
nifying the means employed at the expense of 
the ends to be attained, it needs correction. If 
it fails completely, or is even a hindrance to spir¬ 
itual life, it is “salt that has lost its savor’ ’ and de¬ 
serves only “to be cast out and trodden under foot.” 




CHAPTER III 

THE CHURCH PROPER 

This somewhat awkward but convenient title is 
meant to cover the ordinary activities of a church 
as distinguished from its various departments, 
which will be considered in subsequent chapters. 
By way of introduction, attention will first be given 
to the well-worn but nevertheless vital question, 
“Why do not young men go to church?” 1 

A. ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION 
It is easy to reply that they do go to church, 
and it is indeed true that, as shown in the first 
chapter, several millions of them are church attend¬ 
ants to at least some extent. But that fully 
half of them very seldom if ever cross the thresh¬ 
olds of church buildings is equally true, and it is 
worth patient study to discover if possible the 
reasons for this condition, that is both unfortunate 
and perilous, whether considered from the stand¬ 
point of their own welfare or that of society as 
a whole. In order to get fresh information at 
first hand, the question, “Why are there not 
more young men in the churches?” was printed on 
the schedules sent to pastors and also on those sent 
to young men. Replies were received from about 
one hundred and twenty-five of each, and the more 
important ones are here given. 

1 See The Young Men and the Churches . 

25 



26 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


I. Pastors. Thirty-two laid the blame upon the 
young men themselves, for example: “Indif¬ 
ference; lack of conviction; impurity of thought 
and life; consciousness of being in the wrong; 
pleasure put above duty; unworthy aims and lives 
in conflict with the principles of Christianity; 
moral gravitation the devil’s way; honest preach¬ 
ing produces conviction of sin, which is uncom¬ 
fortable; desire to sow wild oats; enmity of heart 
to divine things.” These are not mere cavils; 
they are simple statements of twentieth century 
facts in line with the first century words that “the 
mind of the flesh is enmity against God.” This 
is unquestionably the primary reason why fully 
half of the young men of our land are entirely out 
of church fellowship or direct influence. They 
could be in church fellowship, and would be if 
they really wanted to be. Not only in this dis¬ 
cussion but in all that follows it must be borne in 
mind that the chief reason why there are not 
more young men in the churches is simply because 
they prefer to be outside. But the existence of 
this preference does not in the least excuse the 
churches from making the utmost effort and using 
all wise means to correct it. 

Twenty-two pastors find the reasons in the 
counter-attractions and temptations of the world. 
This explanation is closely akin to the preceding, 
being based on the universal fact of sin. 

Twelve find the cause in the social conditions 
of modern life, for example: “Young men are so 




THE CHURCH PROPER 


2 7 


driven by over-work during the week, especially 
clerks on Saturday nights, that they fail to attend 
church services through sheer weariness and so 
drift away; Sunday newspapers; Sunday excur¬ 
sions; Sunday desecration; the generally irreligious 
age; the intensely practical spirit of the day, 
crowding out the Christian life; general unrest 
in religious affairs.” 

Forty lay the blame upon the churches: “Too 
conservative—afraid to leave old customs; failure 
to win and hold them as boys; not alive; defi¬ 
cient in spiritual power; harpooning instead of 
angling; lack of manly business methods; dis¬ 
sected Christianity, that is, sectarianism; wor¬ 
ship too stiff and dry; lack of sympathy on the 
part of older persons; not willing to sacrifice to 
get them; have not worked for them.”* 

Seventeen are frank enough to recognize defi¬ 
ciencies in their preaching, or possibly that of 
other pastors: “Old theology and the ‘oh, to be 
nothing’ spirit; not enough appeal to the heroic; 
lack of masculine conception of religion and too 
great emphasis on the feminine; 1 it is a practical 
age and ministers will insist on preaching theology 
when men want life; preaching not direct and 
attractive; a system of prohibitions is taught to the 
exclusion of Christ; failure to meet honestly the 
current objections to the Bible; lack of present- 
day thought.” One reply is especially valuable: 
‘‘Young men have not been taught that religion 


1 The Spiritual Life, Chapter V. 





28 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


is an inward spiritual force which is to be applied 
to every problem and in every avenue of life. It 
is primarily not a thing of the intellect but of the 
will—the will to be and to do according to God’s 
good pleasure in all things.” 

Fourteen cite lax home training and the ab¬ 
sence of fathers from church services; three con¬ 
fess that some pastors are not manly enough and 
are ignorant of young men’s habits of thought, 
temptations, and better impulses; while a solitary 
one thinks the Young Men’s Christian Association 
is to blame. 

In this connection the words of Dr. Josiah 
Strong are of interest: “There is not enough of 
effort, of struggle, in the typical church life of 
to-day to win young men to the church. A ‘flowery 
bed of eas^e’ does not appeal to a fellow who has 
any manhood in him. The prevailing type of relig¬ 
ion is too utterly comfortable to attract young 
men who love the heroic. Eliminate heroism 
from religion and it becomes weak, effeminate. . . 
When service comes to mean human helpfulness, 
there will be more young men to fill empty pews 
with devout worshipers. . . . Love, expressing 
itself in an enthusiasm of service and sacrifice, 
is always powerful to convince and to attract.” 1 

2. Young men. Turning to the replies from 
young men to this and a similar question, it is 
significant that much the greater number lay the 
blame upon the young men themselves, or one 


1 The Times and Young Men, pp. 179-181. 





THE CHURCH PROPER 


29 


hundred and ten out of two hundred and seventy- 
four. The reasons given were substantially those 
given in this class by the pastors, as noted under 
(l), and do not need repetition. 

Forty-three put the blame on worldly attrac¬ 
tions, and seventeen on social conditions; for 
example: “The prevalence of the iron rule instead 
of the golden rule in business; popular skepti¬ 
cism, due to half-digested thought.” 

Seventy-two put the blame on the churches or 
their members, assigning, in addition to those 
previously given, such reasons as: “The incon¬ 
sistent lives of professing Christians; ignorance of 
the Bible by church members; chaotic ideas as 
to what is vital in Christianity—a transition period 
in theology; the church does not keep young men 
interested by giving them definite work to do; 
and the belief of working men that the churches 
are concerned only with the next world, ignoring ) 
the pressing problems of the present life.” 

Forty-two find the fault in preaching, assign¬ 
ing these additional instances: “Not alive to 
present-day social conditions; higher criticism; 
preachers don’t ‘give reasons for the faith that 
is in them’; lack of the power of the Holy Spirit; 
lack of definite gospel preaching and the clear 
presentation of Jesus Christ.” 

Fifteen charge lax home training and bad pater¬ 
nal example, and one “can’t stand present 
creeds.” 

3. Summary . These replies, both from pastors 




30 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


and young men, are worth careful study. They 
are from men who are deeply interested in the 
spiritual welfare of young men, or they would not 
have taken the time and pains requisite to fill out 
blanks containing one over thirty and the other 
nearly fifty questions. They fall, in a rough class¬ 
ification, into three sets, according as they find the 
reason why at least half of our young men very 
seldom if ever attend church services of any kind 
to lie in their own faults, the faults of society at 
large, or the faults of the church. It is a dis¬ 
tinct advantage to have made this diagnosis, but 
this does not solve the problem, any more than 
the patient is cured when the physician has dis¬ 
covered the exact nature of his trouble. Here, 
at least, knowledge for its own sake is of little 
value. If this study is to be of real worth its 
results must be used in bettering the condition 
whose causes have been discovered. We must 
now, therefore, turn from diagnosis to treatment, 
from dealing with what is, to considering how to 
bring to pass what ought to be. 

There is one sovereign specific for all human 
woe, whether it be individual or social, and that 
is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has in it suffi¬ 
cient power to correct and heal all these faults 
of young men that hold them aloof from church 
fellowship, and equally so the faults of society 
and the church itself that hinder their coming in. 
The only question is as to what agencies shall 
be employed in order that this healing power shall 




THE CHURCH PROPER 


31 

be most effectively applied. This is the practical 
problem to the solution of which, so far as it con¬ 
cerns young men, it is hoped that this study may 
furnish some contribution. 

The agencies to be considered in this chapter 
are the pastor, preaching, public worship, and the 
prayer-meeting. 


B. THE PASTOR 

Not only because the pastor is, under the great 
Head of the universal church, the head of the local 
church, but also because as its chief official he is 
its chief representative before the community at 
large, he is first considered among the varied 
agencies for the spiritual betterment of young 
men. 

“A parson, but a man” was the suggestive epi¬ 
taph on the tombstone of a cow-boy preacher . 1 
There is no person whose real success in his work 
depends more upon his genuine manliness than 
he who seeks to promote the spiritual life of 
young men. Neither is there any calling in which 
the lack of it is so fatal. There is no place where 
weakness or effeminacy of any sort are less endur¬ 
able than in the Christian ministry. The pastor 
must be a man among men, must be like Paul in 
“becoming all things to all men,” if he is to have 
their fullest friendship and confidence, if he is 
to have the largest influence with them. This 
is especially true in the case of young men. A 


1 Problems of the Town Church , p. 128. 





3^ 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


C 


cordial interest in their daily work, of which some 
practical knowledge will be valuable; a sharing, 
if possible, in their recreations, both social and 
athletic; an understanding of and a manly sym¬ 
pathy (not tears!) with them in their struggles with 
sin; if in these and all other possible ways the 
pastor will prove himself a genuine brother man 
and not merely a member of “the clerical sex,” 
the solution of the problem of the church and 
young men will be greatly furthered . 1 

Young men admire genuine manliness as 
heartily as they despise sham and effeminacy, and 
the pastor who gives clear proof of having an 
abundance of the former and no trace of the latter 
will be sure to have a large personal following 
among them. And it is very certain, on the 
whole, that if he has no following as a man, no 
hold upon their hearts as a brother, he will have 
little or no influence in promoting that for 
which as a faithful servant of God he longs most 
of all, their spiritual birth and growth. 

Young men demand too, and rightly, that he 
shall give evidence in his own daily living of the 
power of the religion which he commends to them. 
They may enjoy his comradeship as a hail-fellow- 
well-met and appreciate his helpfulness as a 
brother in a thousand ways, but if in his busi¬ 
ness dealings, or in his social relationships, or 
in any other way they see a lower standard of 
living on week-days than he commends to them 


* The Young Man and the Church , p. 26. 





THE CHURCH PROPER 


33 


on Sundays, they will secretly despise him as a 
spiritual guide and reject not only himself but 
his Christ. The manliness of the Man of Galilee 
must be not only heard in his message but man¬ 
ifest in his life. He preaches a Christ incarnate 
in Jesus of Nazareth, living nineteen centuries 
ago, but it will have little effect save as he reveals 
the same Christ incarnate in himself, living 
among men to-day. 

These things of course are true of all classes of 
people with whom the pastor has dealings, but 
they have the greatest force in the case of young 
men, for none are so keen in their observa¬ 
tions or so unsparing in their judgment. He who 
would win them to his Master will daily need 
to remember the words of Dr. Watts: 

“So let our lips and lives express 
The holy gospel we profess; 

Thus shall we best proclaim abroad 
The honors of our Saviour, God.” 

C. PREACHING 

The pastor is differentiated from his fellow 
believers by his function as a preacher. He 
works with them but he preaches to them. He is 
the modern prophet of Jehovah, the successor 
of Elijah and Isaiah, receiving messages from 
God and imparting them to the people. He is 
the herald of the Cross, true successor of the 
apostles. What message does he have for young 
men, and how may it best be suited to their 



34 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


needs in order to be effective to the highest de¬ 
gree in promoting their spiritual welfare? 

It is easy to say that he is to preach the simple 
gospel, but the gospel is no simple affair. Its 
immeasurable heights and depths and breadths 
are not so readily compassed nor so easily 
brought within human comprehension as the 
ready users of this current phrase seem to think. 
Moreover it is by no means a light task so to pre¬ 
sent that gospel that all men, that all young men 
in particular, shall see in it the sole remedy for 
sin, the divine solution of all the vexed prob¬ 
lems of an ever-changing life. For the gospel 
is precisely that remedy and that solution. It 
has to do with the life that now is not merely as 
a preparation for an eternity that is to come, of 
which Jesus had comparatively very [little to say, 
but vastly more does it have to do with the pres¬ 
ent life as a part of an eternity already begun, 
of which He said a great deal. If the preacher’s 
message is to win and hold young men, he must 
not try to soothe their troubled spirits simply 
by assurances of a better life where there will 
be no trouble. He must preach not simply a 
far-away Christ into whose visible presence they 
will some day enter. He must preach also a 
present Christ, in whose invisible but none the less 
real presence they are now, and who is just as able 
and just as ready to help them bear the burdens 
and solve the problems of the life that now is as 
when He “became flesh and dwelt among men." 




THE CHURCH PROPER 


35 


Christ is made too much a dweller on the 
mountain-top, with whom men can hold fellow¬ 
ship only on Sundays and in the meeting-house. 
He is made too much an ethereal sort of being 
who is concerned only with what we term our 
distinctly spiritual natures. But He was neither 
of these in Palestine nineteen centuries ago, and 
He is neither of these in the United States to¬ 
day. Occasional mountain-top fellowship is 
blessed, but of far greater value is the fellowship 
that He grants every hour along the highways 
and byways of life. Spiritual ministries are 
blessed, but so also are His ministries to temporal 
needs, and these He is just as ready to grant as 
when He fed the hungry thousands or gave good 
success to the disciples who had fished all night 
and caught nothing. Young men need to know 
not less of Christ as Saviour and Sovereign, but 
more of Him as an Elder Brother, strong, loving 
and compassionate, an ever present helper in all 
the affairs of life, physical and temporal no less 
than spiritual and eternal. 

As Christ is concerned for all that concerns 
a young man’s life, so must the preacher be 
who would win them to his Master. Here is 
justification of the demand that the preacher be 
a student of social problems. Dr. Cortland 
Myers, pastor of the Baptist Temple in Brook¬ 
lyn, says: “The minister’s education is defect¬ 
ive who believes that his vocation is purely 
spiritual, and that he has no duty to perform in 




36 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


the improvement of the present world. His spe¬ 
cial business is to save souls, but one of the chan¬ 
nels for the accomplishment of this purpose may 
be the solution of economic and political prob¬ 
lems. If he studies his Bible one hour he might 
profitably take one-half of that hour in studying 
its application to the great social issues of the 
day. He might as well build his church around 
the north pole and write his sermons with the 
point of an icicle, if he does not enter into the 
wrongs and sorrows of the poor, and also into the 
justification of the righteous rich .” 1 

In order to get help for the practical side of 
this problem, this question was on the schedule 
sent to the pastors: “What types of thought 
are most effective in preaching to young men?” 
By far the largest number of replies, thirty-five, 
were “practical”; fifteen, “evangelistic”; four¬ 
teen, “heroic”; ten, “moral”; ten, “illustrative”; 
nine, “Biblical”; six, “direct appeal.” This and 
a similar question were on the schedules sent to 
young men, and over a hundred replies were re¬ 
ceived, as follows: forty-two, “practical”; thirty- 
four, “gospel”; twenty-four, “Biblical”; ten, 
“life and works of Christ”; while only one called 
for “new theology.” 

It is significant that the greater number of these 
replies favored sermons distinctly scriptural, 
practical themes coming a close second, and the 
two making up nearly the whole number. Com- 


1 Why Men Do Not Go to Church , p. 71 , 






THE CHURCH PROPER 


37 


bining them, it may be said that the preaching 
which is most effective in the spiritual betterment 
of young men is that which brings the teach¬ 
ings of the Bible to bear upon the problems of 
every-day life; which makes it not simply a book 
of ancient history and literature but a living mes¬ 
sage to living men from a living God, who is just 
as much concerned for their welfare to-day as for 
that of Moses and David and Paul centuries ago. 
Manly preaching of this sort will do more to fill 
vacant pews with young men than all the institu¬ 
tional plans, wise and helpful and even necessary 
though they be, that were ever devised. In the 
succeeding chapters many plans will be discussed 
for promoting the spiritual betterment of young 
men, but it must be ever remembered that no one 
of them nor all of them together have such pos¬ 
sibilities for the achieving of permanent results 
as this. There are many proper and powerful 
aids to the preaching of the gospel, but there is 
no substitute for it. 

Occasional sermons especially for young men 
are often helpful in securing the attendance of 
those who do not come ordinarily. At such times 
special invitations and other means are employed 
to secure their presence, and topics of particular 
importance to them are discussed. One enterpris¬ 
ing pastor in New Orleans sent letters to over 
a hundred prominent business men, asking their 
opinions on many points. He thus aroused a 
wide interest in his course of sermons to young 



38 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


men, and was able to preach more helpfully to 
them because of the suggestive replies. 

It was said that this would prove the prime 
means for filling vacant pews with young men, 
but must a preacher always address his message 
to the properly behaved occupants of the pews? 
It is certain that Jesus and Paul were very far from 
confining their utterances to those who attended 
the synagogue, and the modern preacher who 
would reach the largest number of young men 
must often go where they are. To be sure this 
is unconventional, but that very fact will make 
it appeal to them. In the chapter on the Young 
Men’s Christian Association, the new work of 
taking the gospel into shops and factories at the 
noon hour is described. The Association has an 
especial advantage in this work in that it stands 
for evangelical Christianity as a whole and not for 
any denomination in particular, and where it exists 
is undoubtedly the best agency for carrying it on. 
But there is no sufficient reason why any pastor, 
if tactful and manly, may not do a similar work, 
especially in places where there is no Association. 

There are a few pastors who have done and are 
doing it, the best known of whom is probably the 
Rev. Charles Stelzle, pastor of the Markham Pres¬ 
byterian Church in St. Louis. He says of it: 
“The most effective way of reaching workingmen 
is the simplest way, and any preacher can do it if 
he will. Let him get away from churchly things 
and ecclesiastical manners, and go to some big 




THE CHURCH PROPER 


39 


shop at the noon hour, having secured permission 
from the owner, and give the men a simple prac¬ 
tical talk on a Bible theme. Have it come 
straight from the heart. I can assure you that it 
will, when this method of preaching is attempted. 
It will take away the cobwebs and fossilism of 
years. It has been my privilege to address 
regularly about three hundred young mechanics 
on themes that had to do with their eternal 
welfare. They felt at home in the atmosphere of 
the shop, and the illustrations were drawn almost 
entirely from shop life. I fancy that to many of 
them this did not seem like preaching—as they 
understood it—but the vital truths of God’s word 
were carried home. I have never been listened 
to with greater interest. After all there is noth¬ 
ing like the old, old story. Preached with faith 
and with a heart aflame with love for the souls 
of men, there can be no greater theme, for ‘it is 
the power of God unto salvation to every one’— 
men of brawn as well as men of brain—‘that 
believeth.* ” 1 

That pastors are not necessarily unsuited to 
this work is evident also from this statement in 
a personal letter from one who was formerly an 
Association secretary and still cooperates in this 
way: “Although rector of St. Andrew’s Church 
(Episcopal) I still speak twice and sometimes 
three times a week at the shops, confining my 
talk purely to pointing the men to Christ and 


1 The Workingman and Social Problems , p. 157 . 






40 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


His teachings. The result is that some go to one 
church and some to another, and some already 
church members are stirred to a greater zeal. I 
am content with these results.” 

Shops may be lacking or—rarely—hostile, but 
the open air is always available. The thousands 
of young men who walk the streets summer 
evenings may at least to some extent be reached 
in this way. To quote again from Mr. Stelzle’s 
large experience: “It is through this method that 
they will be reached for Christ. Driven from 
their homes by the heat they will sit in the parks, 
on the docks, or on the curbstone. Unwilling to 
enter the church building in the winter, they will 
listen to the gospel in a tent or open-air meetings 
in the summer. With pipes in their mouths but 
with great respect and the keenest interest, I have 
preached to hundreds of workingmen from the 
top of a barrel on a vacant corner lot, and to 
many more in a tent. ... I know that street 
preaching is not looked upon with much favor by 
the conservative people in our churches. But 
we have good authority for it in the greatest 
preachers of modern and ancient times, as well 
as in Paul and Jesus.” 1 

The preacher who would have his message 
reach the largest number of young men must be 
willing, not occasionally but often, to follow 
his Master’s example in going to them. By so 
doing he will not only do good at the time but 


The Workingman and Social Problems , pp. i6i, 162 . 





THE CHURCH PROPER 


41 


make them more ready to come to him in the 
usual services, and thus be brought more directly 
under church influence. 

D. PUBLIC WORSHIP 

The pastor is more than the successor of the 
prophets and apostles, is more than a preacher. 
Spiritual growth requires more than the hearing 
of sermons, in which the listener is passive; there 
must also be worship, the outgoing of the heart to 
God in devotion and adoration. It is an aid to 
worship to have believers “assembled together,” 
and it is in the directing and leading of this com¬ 
mon worship that the priestly function of the 
pastor appears. As prophet he communicates 
God’s messages to men; as priest he directs their 
worship of Him. Into the much discussed ques¬ 
tion of church liturgies there is neither cause nor 
space to enter here at any length. The question, 
however, is a vital one and must have at least a 
very brief consideration. 

A marked characteristic of young men is their 
desire to do something, to have a share in what is 
going on. They do not leave this characteristic 
outside the church building when they enter. 
They are accustomed to activity outside and they 
want some form of it inside—at least the average 
young American does. He not only wants to see 
things move but to have some part in their mov¬ 
ing, on Sunday as well as on Saturday. 

While there is infinite variety in human tastes, 




42 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


it is safe to say that young men ordinarily enjoy 
a religious service far more when there are fre¬ 
quent occasions for their participation in it, 
through songs and prayers and responses, than 
when the preacher and choir do it all, with a 
grudging allowance to the congregation of a hymn 
or two, usually mutilated by omissions. The plan 
of the Sunday Evening Club, discussed in Chapter 
VI, has a decided advantage in giving young men 
a large share not only in the participation but 
also in the arranging of the service. 

It will be a glad day when the non-liturgical 
churches—as happily many of [them are doing— 
grow out of the Puritanical fear of doing any¬ 
thing that savors in the least of ritualism, and 
into the appreciation of the fact that, from the 
first note of the organ voluntary to the last word 
of the benediction, the underlying purpose of 
the whole service, save only possibly the sermon 
and certainly the intruding notices, is the expres¬ 
sion of worship, and that in the worship each 
worshiper ought to participate as far as possible. 
There ought to be and there certainly is a happy 
middle ground between the equally barren confines 
of the ordinary non-liturgical order of exercises 
and the extremely ritualistic service, in which 
there is too often a contest of speed and endur¬ 
ance between the officiating clergyman and his 
panting congregation. The efforts to find this 
ground, broad enough to afford pasturage for the 
many folds of the one flock, are numerous and 





THE CHURCH PROPER 


43 


promising. Success will insure more of life and 
helpfulness in church services, and will serve in 
no small degree to secure the presence and sup¬ 
port of young men, and thus their spiritual bet¬ 
terment. 

Here again appears the necessity that the 
pastor know young men and be in close touch 
and vital sympathy with them. As he cannot 
successfully bring God’s messages to them, so 
neither can he direct their worship of Him, and 
in particular he cannot effectually pray for them, 
without this intimate knowledge and sympathy. 
His prophetic and his priestly ministry alike de¬ 
mand these. 


E. THE PRAYER-MEETING 

Some one has said, with more of prosaic truth 
than poetic fancy, that it would be almost as reas¬ 
onable to expect a new born child to thrive in a 
refrigerator as for a young convert to find spiritual 
warmth in the average church prayer-meeting. 
There are some who think that the rise of the 
young people’s society has been hurtful to this 
service, but on the whole it is probably just the 
reverse. But for the training of the young peo¬ 
ple in their own prayer-meeting, many of the best 
supporters of the church prayer-meeting would 
be as dumb or as dull as their elders. 

What ought to be the most wide awake and 
thoroughly enjoyable service of the week is 
ordinarily the most sleepy and unenjoyable, a 




44 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


burden to the faithful few and a by-word to the 
many. Of all the church services young men 
are least in evidence at this. One does not have 
to go far to find the reason, indeed it has just 
been stated. The service is commonly sleepy and 
uninteresting, and these things the young man 
shuns, not necessarily because he “loves darkness 
rather than light” but because he loves life rather 
than lethargy. His nature demands activity, and 
he is quite apt to obey its behests. 

There is a plethora of panaceas for the prayer¬ 
meeting, and the writer proposes no new one. He 
only pleads that, for the sake of the young men, 
and so for the sake of the church itself, some 
means be adopted for making this service what it 
ought to be and can be made, the hearthstone 
meeting, the family gathering where, by prayer 
and praise and brotherly interchange of experience 
in definite Christian work, the souls of young men 
and of all others as well shall be built up in like¬ 
ness to Christ, and in whose atmosphere of faith 
and love and fellowship some may even be born 
into the kingdom of God. 

From this brief survey of the agencies of what 
for lack of a better name is called “the church 
proper” we turn to the work of its departments, 
always bearing in mind that they are as distinctly 
and vitally a part of the work of the church as are 
these. 




CHAPTER IV 


THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

In a field of Christian activity where there are 
already many books, and where millions of pages 
of lesson quarterlies and papers are published 
every year, a newcomer must indeed be venture¬ 
some. But the particular portion of the field with 
which this study deals has had scant attention 
in print, and there seems to be a place for 
at least a chapter upon the work of the Sunday- 
school for young men. First some general con¬ 
siderations. 

A. HISTORICAL 

From the beginning Christianity has given large 
place in its work to teaching. Its Founder was 
the greatest of teachers, and not only by constant 
example but by final command laid upon His 
followers the work of teaching His gospel to 
those who knew it not. In the early church 
teaching was coordinate with preaching, and 
equally instrumental in its growth. During suc¬ 
ceeding centuries, amid all the varying fortunes 
of the church, teaching was never wholly given 
up. Renewed emphasis was laid upon it by 
Luther and his fellow reformers, and also by 
the Jesuits. 


45 


46 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


Its modern renaissance dates from the latter 
part of the eighteenth century. It was in 1780 
that Robert Raikes, an editor and philanthropist 
of Gloucester, England, gathered poor children 
on Sunday for instruction in reading and in the 
elementary truths of religion. “This,” says Dr. 
H. C. Trumbull, “was the beginning of the 
modern Sunday-school movement. This was the 
revival of the divinely appointed church Bible 
school. This was the starting point of a new 
period of life and hope to the church of Christ, 
and through the church to the world.” 1 

The movement quickly spread, not only 
throughout England but to other countries. It 
soon found its way to our shores and became a 
strong factor in the religious life of the new 
nation, and has been such increasingly to the 
present day. A summary of its work is thus 
given by Dr. Trumbull: “In the latter third of 
the eighteenth century Bible study and Bible 
teaching were a minor factor in the activities of 
the Christian church, and the tide of vital god¬ 
liness was at a very low ebb on the shores of all 
Christendom. In the latter third of the nineteenth 
century Bible study and Bible teaching have a 
prominence never before known in the world’s 
history, and vital godliness is shown and felt with 
unprecedented potency in the life and progress of 
mankind. This change is due to God’s blessing 
on the revival and expansion of the church Bible 


1 Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school , p. no. 




THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


47 


school as His chosen agency for Christian evan¬ 
gelizing and Christian training.” 1 

Some idea of its present magnitude may be 
gained from the fact that the membership of all 
Sunday-schools in the United States is given by 
Mr. Marion Lawrance of Toledo, Ohio, the 
general secretary of the International Sunday- 
school Association, as over thirteen millions, of 
whom about one and a half millions are officers 
and teachers. 


B. DEFINITION 

There is no better definition of the Sunday- 
school than Dr. Trumbull’s phrase, “the church 
Bible school.” In this are expressed three prin¬ 
ciples worthy of emphasis in even so necessarily 
brief a discussion as this. 

First, it is a school, and therefore its chief 
business is teaching. Its session is not for the 
purpose of furnishing entertainment, though a lit¬ 
tle of this may occasionally be wise. Neither 
is it primarily for worship, though the atmosphere 
of worship and reverence should pervade its ex¬ 
ercises. Its primary purpose is instruction, and 
whatever helps to this end is good and whatever 
hinders is bad. Its government and methods 
must have due regard to this purpose. 

Second, its chief subject of study is the Bible, 
as the revelation of the mind of God and of 
His will for mankind. History, literature, art, 


1 Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school , p. 142 . 







48 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


science, nature-study, philosophy, sociology, all 
these may be used to advantage as illustrations 
of Scripture and as supplemental to it, but they 
can never take its place. The one text-book is 
the Bible, whose teachings are to be so presented 
as to effect, under the blessing of its divine 
Author, the spiritual birth and growth of the mem¬ 
bers of the school. 

In the third place, the Sunday-school is a 
department of the church, and not a thing in any 
way apart from it. It is the church at study, 
grouped in classes under many leaders, just as 
what is commonly but unfortunately called the 
church service is the church at worship, in one 
congregation under one leader. In this respect 
it has outgrown the idea of Raikes, though 
many still regard it as simply a nursery for child¬ 
ren. Every member of the church ought to par¬ 
ticipate in the service of Bible study, as much 
as in the service of worship. 

These principles will each be referred to later. 
They are stated concisely at the outset because 
they underlie all that follows. 

C. A FAILURE, WITH SOME CAUSES AND 
SUGGESTIONS 

I. Failure. It is a matter of common knowledge 
that the Sunday-school ordinarily fails to hold 
boys after the age of about fifteen. Detailed 
reports from thirty-eight schools, sufficiently dis¬ 
tributed with regard to place and denomination 




THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


49 


as to be fairly representative of all, show the fol¬ 
lowing facts in confirmation of this: 


Total enrolment,. 

Male enrolment,. 

Males, 3 to io years inclusive, 

“ ii to 15 “ 

“ 16 to 25 “ 

“ 26 to 35 “ 

over 35 years . . . 


17,131 
6,814 
1,941 
i,757 
i,394 
943 
• 779 


The marked falling off after the age of fifteen is 
all the more evident upon comparison of these 
figures with those for the male population of the 
United States, according to the last census. 




Enrolment 
of 38 schools, 

Same 
on basis 

Age 

Pop’n U. S. 

actual 

of pop’n 

II to 15 

3.970.375 

i,757 


16 to 25 

7.339.380 

(increase 85%) 

i,394 

(decrease 26%) 

3,250 

26 to 35 

6,093,548 

(decrease 17%) 

943 

(decrease 32%) 

2,710 


The figures in the third column show what the 
membership of these schools would be provided 
they had merely held their own. Taking as a 
basis the male membership from eleven to fifteen 
and allowing for loss by death, but not for re¬ 
movals, since in the average community (these 
were all in large towns and cities) the gain by 
migration is greater than the loss, and making no 
allowance for additions of members over fifteen 
who have never been in any school, the male 
membership of these schools from sixteen to 
twenty-five should have been 3,250 instead of 





50 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 

1,394, and from twenty-six to thirty-five, 2,710 
instead of 943. These facts present in concrete 
form one of the most serious problems before 
the Sunday-schools of this country. What are 
the causes of this condition and how may it be 
remedied? 

2. Causes. To the question, “Why does the 
Bible school commonly lose its hold on boys upon 
their becoming young men?” nearly one hundred 
replies were received from pastors and superinten¬ 
dents, and as many more replies to a similar 
question were also received from young men. 
The more important of them are here summarized. 

1) Young men themselves. In the first place, as 
in every line of Christian effort on behalf of young 
men, it must be recognized that a large reason 
for their not being reached and helped lies in 
themselves. Several workers give reasons of this 
sort, among them the principal of a high grade 
academy for boys near Chicago, a teacher of 
long experience, a father of boys, and a superin¬ 
tendent of unusual ability. His whole reply is 
worth study. 

“The Bible school loses its hold on older 
boys for largely the same reasons that the high 
school loses its hold on them at the same age. 
It has been shown by reviewing the figures for 
a number of years in the Massachusetts high 
schools that the loss during the course would be 
represented by the figures 18 and 6; i.e., of eight¬ 
een pupils who enter only six graduate. Now in 




THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


51 


considering these figures in their bearing on the 
boy problem we must remember (1) that more 
girls graduate than boys, and (2) that many of the 
boys are kept in school to the end only by social 
and athletic interests, and graduate with condi¬ 
tions, or by narrow margins, or in weak courses. 
It is a great mistake to imagine that this difficulty 
is confined to the Bible schools. 

“It is due largely to the lack of moral strength 
in the boys, and for this lack of strength we teach¬ 
ers and parents are, of course, responsible. In 
passing from the old, stiff, repressive system, 
we have temporarily lost our grip and our bearings 
and the boys are not learning obedience, patience, 
foresightedness, reverence, unselfishness. An 
over-lax, vague training tells worse on the boys, 
as the girls are not spoiled so rapidly.” 

2) Deficient home training. This reply gives 
another reason, also named by several others, 
that is even more fundamental, in that it fixes 
the blame for moral looseness in the boys upon 
an over-lax training in the home. The best pos¬ 
sible Sunday-school is of little influence compared 
with the home, and it neither can serve nor was 
it ever intended to serve as a substitute for the 
latter in imparting moral and religious instruction. 
At the most it is only a helper, supplementing 
what is good and to some extent correcting what 
is bad. 

Parents who think they have discharged their 
responsibility for the spiritual welfare of their chil- 





52 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


dren by sending them to Sunday school one hour 
a week, have a very narrow conception of their 
duty in this most important matter. There is 
probably no one thing which would more surely 
and quickly build up the Sunday-school in all its 
departments than a practical recognition of this 
responsibility by parents, and a regarding of the 
school not as a substitute for their own efforts 
but as a valuable ally. 

1 3) Absence of adults. This would involve also 
their own presence, the lack of which constitutes 
another reason. Many boys drop out of a school 
in spite of its best efforts simply because they 
think they are getting too big, and in this they 
are confirmed by the general absence of men, 
including their own fathers. “How shall we keep 
the young people?” was once asked at a confer¬ 
ence. “Build a wall of old people between them 
and the door,” was the quick reply of a wise 
worker. 

4) Separation of church a?id school. Again, the 
tendency to regard the school as separate from 
the church has no small effect in at least allowing, 
if not directly causing, older boys to drop out. 
Possessed of the false idea that it is a “children’s 
church,” they naturally cease to attend when no 
longer children. If more emphasis, not so much 
by words as by deeds, were laid on the fact that it 
is not for children alone but for all, and that it is 
not a “church,” with a modified form of worship, 
but a school for instruction, boys would not think 




THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


53 


themselves to have outgrown it at fifteen. More¬ 
over, if upon ceasing to attend the school they 
became attendants upon the service of worship, 
it would not be so bad. But, having been practi¬ 
cally excused from it by attending the “children’s 
church,’’ they have formed the habit of absence, 
and easily continue it. The small and diminish¬ 
ing presence of boys—and girls as well—in the ser¬ 
vice of worship is a serious evil, and there is press¬ 
ing need of immediate and radical improvement. 

It would be a distinct gain in this direction 
if the two morning services of the church, for 
study and for worship, could either be combined 
into one of not exceeding two hours, or each 
shortened to not over an hour for the first, of which 
forty-five minutes should be given to the lesson, 
and an hour and a quarter for the second, with a 
five-minute interval. Let the time be such as to 
accommodate the largest number, say ten o’clock 
for the first and eleven for the second; let the 
function of each service be clearly differentiated; 
let the need of all persons for each one be duly 
emphasized, both by precept and example; and 
much will be done toward the realization of the 
ideal, “All the school in the church and all the 
church in the school.” Such a consummation 
is not only “devoutly to be wished,’’ but is worth 
large effort and sacrifice to attain. 

Still other causes often overlooked are to be 
found in present-day social conditions, discussed 
in the preceding chapter. 



54 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


The foregoing reasons are due to conditions 
more or less beyond the control of the school, yet 
wise management would do much to better them. 
By far the greater proportion, however, of those 
assigned by pastors, superintendents, and young 
men alike, are due to faults in the school itself. 

5) Non-conversion of boys. An important cause 
of the failure to hold the older boys lies in the 
failure to secure their previous conversion. The 
great bulk of those who drop out on becoming 
young men have not been converted, and hence 
worldly attractions easily surpass those of the 
best school. As clearly shown in the first chapter, 
sixteen is the age of greatest probability of con¬ 
version. After this the chances, from the stand¬ 
point of human likelihood, rapidly diminish. The 
function of the Sunday-school was said in the 
earlier part of this chapter to be so to teach the 
truths of the Bible “as to effect, under the bless¬ 
ing of its divine Author, the spiritual birth and 
growth of the members.” If this birth does not 
occur in the boy by the age of sixteen, it will be in¬ 
creasingly difficult in the next few years and soon 
impossible to hold the young man in the school. 

Too much emphasis can hardly be laid upon the 
importance of religious training in the earliest 
years of boyhood. But the common idea that 
everything must bend to the child, and that if only 
he is started right he will continue right, is false. 
Saplings may grow that way but not boys. Zeal¬ 
ous workers are too often so impressed with the 




THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


55 


saying attributed to the Jesuit Xavier, “Give me 
a child until he is seven and I care not who has 
him afterward,” as to be blind to the need of 
constant training in all the years of boyhood and 
young manhood that follow seven, if the results 
of early training are to be conserved. This is all 
too clearly shown by the figures at the beginning 
of this section. Moreover, Xavier had in mind 
the daily and hourly training of a child, and not 
the one hour a week which comprises all the posi¬ 
tive spiritual training that many a pupil receives. 

Of course, no one would hold that the Sunday- 
school is solely responsible for the conversion 
of its boys, but that it has a very large and too 
often neglected responsibility in the matter will 
be admitted by all. That it is the most effective 
single agency of the church for inducing conver¬ 
sions is beyond doubt. It has been estimated by 
a worker of wide experience and observation that 
over three-fourths of all the church accessions by 
confession of faith are from its ranks. It is an 
occasion for devout gratitude that out of one 
hundred schools embraced in this study, forty- 
seven reported a total of 405 conversions of young 
men in twelve months traceable at least in part to 
their work. There is nevertheless ample room 
for improvement at this point, and large need of 
it for the sake of the school itself, especially in 
the sphere of its work for the older boys and 
young men. 

The school in which there are frequent conver- 




56 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


sions of boys through the agency of faithful teach¬ 
ing will ordinarily be successful in holding the 
young men. It is, however, too true that many 
boys who have been converted and are members 
of the church drop out of the Sunday-school. Con¬ 
version is a strong tie, but sometimes even it fails, 
and we must look farther. 

6) Lack of male teachers. The absence of men as 
teachers is another reason for the loss of older 
boys and the consequent lack of young men. This 
deficiency is clearly seen in the reports of eighty- 
two schools, in which there are 1,667 female 
teachers but only 703 males. Let there be more 
men, particularly of the manly sort, to teach boys, 
and in a few years the lack of young men will 
be in part remedied. Some wise man has said 
that the best way to get a strong church mem¬ 
bership is to grow it from childhood, and this is 
equally true of the young men’s classes in the 
Sunday-school. 

7) Poor teaching. The chief reason why the 
school is not more successful with young men is 
naturally connected with its chief function, which 
is teaching. Children may be held by various 
methods such as entertainments, cards, papers and 
books, but the average young man has, in these 
respects at least, “put away childish things.” If 
he is to be held in an institution whose chief bus¬ 
iness is to teach, he must be taught, and both the 
substance and form of the teaching must be such 
as to command his respect 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


57 


In the last analysis, it is the teacher who holds 
the key to the situation. Let the teacher fail, 
either through lack of knowledge of the subject 
or, what is equally fatal, through lack of intimate 
knowledge of and real hearty sympathy with the 
young men, and all the other features of the 
school, however attractive, will avail but little. 
On the other hand, the general affairs of the 
school may be conducted never so poorly, but if 
the teacher knows the subject thoroughly and 
knows how to present it in such fashion as to 
make the lesson a source of real help for the 
everyday life of young men and a positive 
addition to their knowledge of the Bible, and, 
what is equally vital, has both thorough acquaint¬ 
ance and genuine sympathy with each member, 
the work of the class will be successful to a high 
degree. 

It is unfortunately true that too much of present 
day Sunday-school teaching deserves the name 
given it by an experienced superintendent, 
“wishy-washy.” Fatal to any teaching, this is 
particularly so in teaching young men. In the 
public schools they have been under the best 
teachers, and are quick to detect a poorly learned 
lesson or sham of any sort. Of all “pious 
frauds” there is none greater or more serious in 
its consequences than that which masquerades 
under the name of teaching in many Sunday- 
school classes. 

Young men, too, who are in the strain and 





58 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


stress of every-day life and beset by its real 
difficulties, get little help from the weak senti¬ 
mentality and pious platitudes that are too often 
found there. Of all subjects in the world that 
deserve to be presented to young men in honest, 
vigorous, straightforward, manly fashion, the 
foremost is religion. Of all the books in the 
world that ought to be taught in such fashion, 
the first is the book which deals with the real 
problems of life and offers help for their solution 
as does no other, the book which portrays Moses 
and David, Jesus of Nazareth and John and Paul, 
the book of books, the Bible. With its general 
facts and teachings they are more or less familiar. 
What they want is to have them applied to the 
specific problems of their daily living. Its eternal 
truths must be translated not simply into English 
but into the concrete vernacular of present life 
with its ever-changing conditions. The teacher 
who does this will have little or no difficulty in 
holding young men. 

3. Suggestions. Growing partly out of the con¬ 
sideration of these causes, partly out of the reports 
from schools, and partly out of experience, some 
suggestions are here offered. 

1) The lesso?i . While the teacher is the most 
important element in the problem of holding 
young men in the Sunday-school, another of much 
importance is the lesson to be taught. There is 
neither desire nor space to take up the controversy 
over the relative merits of the International Les- 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


59 


son System and its chief rival, the Bible Study 
Union or Blakeslee System, published in Boston. 
It will, of course, be granted that with either 
one a good teacher can do good work, but after 
experience with both the writer is convinced of 
the unquestioned superiority of the latter, for all 
departments of the school. The fact that it re¬ 
quires some real mental effort on the part of the 
pupil is no doubt unwelcome to some, especially 
to those whose school days are past and their 
habits of study abandoned. But in the long run 
its worth will attract more than its work repels, 
while the individual results will ordinarily be far 
superior. Even where a school is using the older 
system, there is no sufficient reason why the 
young men’s class may not adopt the newer. The 
very fact that they have different lessons will do 
much to relieve a perhaps unworthy but never¬ 
theless real feeling that they are only a side 
feature of a juvenile institution, merely a class 
of bigger children. Some of the courses offered 
by the American Institute of Sacred Literature, 
Chicago, and also most or all of those provided 
by the International Committee of the Young 
Men’s Christian Associations, New York, could 
be used with much profit. 

So simple a provision as this would do much to 
meet such objections as these: “The young men 
are not properly cared for; they are not dealt 
with as men; there is a lack of adaptation to their 
needs; lack of class spirit; lack of high grade in- 



6o 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


struction; lack of progressive study; schools not 
graded; lack of a definite goal in study; teach¬ 
ing not virile; the pedagogic imbecility of the 
uniform lesson system.” 

2) Grading. One of the more recent reforms 
which promises much for the betterment of 
Sunday-school work in general and so of that for 
young men, as suggested in the previous section, 
is the introduction of the graded system. When 
once it is recognized that the distinguishing func¬ 
tion of the school is instruction, it must be admit¬ 
ted that this should be conducted in accordance 
with sound principles of teaching. One of the 
most evident of these is that the subject to be 
taught be adapted to the understanding of the 
pupil. That a mere sentiment as to the beauty 
of millions of pupils studying the same lesson 
every Sunday should be allowed to push aside 
this fundamental principle, is far from creditable 
to the leaders in this great work. As well re¬ 
quire that all persons in this land should eat the 
same thing for breakfast every Sunday morning as 
a matter of sentiment, no matter whether it is 
the best food for them or not. 

Some of the most advanced schools not only 
have the pupils graded, on the basis of their 
public school grades, but also have written 
examinations. The boy in such a school who 
has been really making definite progress in 
Scripture knowledge up to fifteen will be more 
likely to continue as a young man than one 




THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


61 


brought up under the ordinary method—or lack 
of it. 

The two schools best known to the writer that 
have had this system in operation for several 
years are the Hyde Park Baptist of Chicago, 
the superintendent of which is President Harper 
of the University of Chicago, and the First Bap¬ 
tist of Morgan Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chi¬ 
cago, the superintendent of which is Professor I. 
B. Burgess. Details of the plan can be secured 
from them. A book just published, Principles 
and Ideals for the Sunday-school, is largely based 
on the experience in the former school. 

3) Questions. The methods of teaching are also 
important, but a single suggestion must suffice. 
If there is to be real teaching and not simply 
lecturing, the conversational method employed by 
the great Teacher must be followed. This involves 
questioning, and that takes great care and tact. 

The average young man, even though he be a 
college graduate, is not well posted on the facts 
and teachings of the Bible, and is moreover sen¬ 
sitive about having his ignorance exposed. At the 
same time the teacher must know the extent of 
his knowledge in order to help him, and to get 
this safely requires much wisdom. It is always 
best not to question too closely or too pointedly, 
lest he take offense and cease coming. At least 
one promising class was broken up by a too rigid 
insistence upon the question and answer method 
of the school-room. 




62 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


4) Mixed classes . The question of the co-edu¬ 
cation of young people is a live one no less in 
the Sunday-school than in college circles. The 
case for mixed classes is thus stated: “The pre¬ 
sence of both sexes furnishes an intellectual stim¬ 
ulus. It is an incentive to quick thinking and 
insures broader range of opinion in time of dis¬ 
cussion. The differences between the feminine 
and the masculine processes of thought and the 
correspondingly different results furnish abi-focal 
vision on practical questions, and that is a helpful 
thing in any search for truth.” 1 

On the other hand, in a class composed of 
young men only there is a larger freedom in 
discussion, not only on general points but partic¬ 
ularly on matters of especial interest to them¬ 
selves, which will ordinarily overbalance the 
advantages cited for the mixed class. Accord¬ 
ing to the reports, by far the larger proportion of 
classes containing young men consist of them 
only, which is true also of nearly or quite all of 
the eminently successful ones. 

5) Sex of teacher . Whether the teacher of 
young men should be a man or a woman is a 
question that often arises. There are undoubt¬ 
edly traits of character in a woman which are of 
great advantage to her in such a position, and 
not less so to the young men as well. Yet, 
while there are many women who are very suc¬ 
cessful teachers, it is safe to say that with equal 


1 The Pilgrim Teacher (Congregational), December, 1902, p. 543. 





THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


63 


ability to teach and equal interest in and for the 
class, a man is preferable. He knows, as even a 
mother of young men can not, the peculiar 
trials and temptations to which they are liable 
by reason of their nature. He knows, too, as 
the other can not, the business ambitions and 
struggles they are experiencing. He can there¬ 
fore better enter into their lives and so have 
that real heart touch with them without which 
the most skillful teaching will avail but little. 
Whether he be young or old in years does not 
matter much, provided his heart beats in unison 
with theirs. 

6) Time of meeting. This is an important factor 
in the success of a young men’s class. Many 
are employed in stores so late on Saturday nights 
that attendance upon a Sunday morning session 
is practically out of the question. Others are 
engaged in the pursuit of pleasure till so late 
an hour as to have a similar effect. It is useless 
to seek to change such habits of business and 
pleasure. The wiser method is to recognize their 
existence and plan accordingly. 

Most of the large classes, so far as known, 
meet at noon, and this is on the whole probably 
the best hour, especially in large cities. Even 
if the main school meets at half-past nine, or 
better at ten, as suggested in a preceding para¬ 
graph, it may be best for the young men’s class 
to meet after the service of worship. This 
affords an invitation committee an excellent 




64 the church and young men 


opportunity to build up a large attendance. Of 
course, the local conditions must finally deter¬ 
mine this as well as many other details. One 
morning class reports the difficulty above referred 
to, while one meeting at noon has trouble in 
securing the attendance of young men who live 
in boarding houses, “since they want to get the 
full benefit of the one good meal in the week.” 

j) Separate room . It goes without saying that 
this is always advisable for a young men’s class, 
and will prove of much help in holding it 
together. If they can themselves provide pic¬ 
tures and other decorations, and perhaps some 
special furniture, it will help to develop a class 
spirit that will often tide over emergencies. 
Where there is a separate room the young men’s 
class need not participate in the closing exer¬ 
cises of the main school, but close at its pleasure. 

This leads to the next topic, that of organiza¬ 
tion, which demands a whole section of its own. 

D. ORGANIZED CLASSES 

One of the most hopeful features of Sunday- 
school work as a whole, and the most promising 
of its work in this department, is the growth 
of organized Bible classes of young men. These 
take the form of definite societies with constitu¬ 
tion, officers and committees, and do much work 
in addition to that connected with the session 
for study. The number is already large and is 
rapidly increasing, and hence no attempt has been 





THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


65 


made to enumerate them. The study of a few 
typical ones will be undertaken as best affording 
a knowledge of the general workings of all, with¬ 
out any reflection on many more equally good 
but from whom no reports could be obtained, 
nor the yet larger number unknown. 

i. Class Number Eight. This class, in the First 
Baptist Sunday-school of Urbana, Ohio, is one 
of the oldest existing Bible classes for young 
men having a definite organization. It was estab¬ 
lished in December, 1870, with three members, 
under the leadership of Dr. H. C. Houston, 
who has been the teacher ever since, with two 
intervals. For the first year the enrolment was 
eight, and from that fact the name was derived. 
The membership was soon limited to twelve and 
a waiting list established, but the popularity of 
the class compelled a raising of the limit. 

In 1875 an< ^ 1876, during the absence of Dr. 
Houston, several young women were admitted, 
resulting in its disorganization. In January, 
1878, it was reorganized on the original basis 
and has had a continuous existence since then. 
By December of that year the membership was 
twenty, and the eighth anniversary of the estab¬ 
lishment of the class was celebrated by a reunion 
at the teacher’s home, with social features, reports, 
and election of officers. This custom has since 
been regularly observed, except during the second 
of the intervals referred to. 

The spirit of giving was early developed, as 





66 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


shown by large regular collections and other 
contributions, although the membership was made 
up of wage-earners and others on small salaries. 
In 1882, upon the erection of a new church build¬ 
ing, the class not only gave over $2,000 to the 
general fund but also built and furnished its 
own room at a cost of $1,000. This is a one- 
story addition to the main Sunday-school room, 
into which it opens by sliding doors. The prin¬ 
ciple of a limited membership having been 
adhered to, the new room was arranged to seat 
just fifty. The following description, as also all 
the information in this paragraph, is taken from 
the published history of the class. 

“Each chair has on it the name of the occupant 
and the date when he became a member. Just 
inside the door (a separate entrance) are fifty 
brass hooks. Above each is a number corre¬ 
sponding to a numbered chair, and on each a 
numbered card giving the name, residence, occu¬ 
pation and date of membership. These are so 
faced before the session as to be read, and as 
the members arrive they reverse them, so that 
the usher can see at a glance what seats are 
available for visitors. The secretary makes up 
the record from the cards and thus obviates the 
calling of the roll. On the walls are pictures of 
those who have died while members, and on the 
sliding doors are blackboards.” 

During Dr. Houston’s second absence, from 
1885 to 1891, the attendance was greatly re- 




THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


67 


duced, but upon his resuming the work the 
former prosperity returned and even increased. 
The fifty large arm chairs originally provided 
were replaced in 1893 by seventy smaller ones 
and later increased to ninety-two, the extreme 
capacity of the room. 

These are arranged in four semi-circles. The 
first, and most remote from the teacher, are 
occupied by the older members; the second by 
those averaging twenty years of age; the third, 
eighteen; the fourth, sixteen. In 1876 a fifth 
division was established, consisting of boys from 
twelve to fifteen. They are received as mem¬ 
bers but meet ordinarily with the rest of the 
school, sitting next to the sliding doors which 
open into the room of the class. 

In 1893 the class was incorporated under the 
state laws, the object being “the mutual improve¬ 
ment and help of its members, and for charit¬ 
able and benevolent purposes.” 

Among the features of class life in addition to 
the Sunday session are the following: Social 
gatherings, besides the annual reunions, attended 
by as high as two hundred and fifty young men, 
and also summer outings; the relief of members 
in need and the providing of employment through 
a committee of three business men, who came 
into the class as boys; much is also given for the 
relief of others who may be in distress; visita¬ 
tion and watching in sickness; attendance in a 
body upon funerals; and the observance of the 



68 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


first Sunday in June as a class memorial day, 
when the graves of deceased members are deco¬ 
rated with appropriate exercises. 

A new member is admitted, in case of vacancy, 
only after attendance on four successive Sundays, 
and upon recommendation by the board of trus¬ 
tees, since the class is an incorporated body. 
A brief service of recognition attends his admis¬ 
sion, in which he agrees to be present regularly 
and to conform to the customs and rules. He 
receives a membership certificate, suitable for 
framing, a badge to be used on special occasions, 
and a class button for daily wearing. Certifi¬ 
cates of honorary membership are granted to 
those who leave the city after not less than six 
months of regular attendance, and also to those 
who do not leave but find it impossible to keep 
up attendance, provided they have done so not 
less than two years. In case of a member’s re¬ 
moval, notice is sent to a pastor or superintendent 
in his new home, thus helping to continue his 
interest in such work. Members are excluded 
after three consecutive absences without excuse. 

A large book is kept in which each member 
records his name, age, occupation and date of 
membership, and space is reserved for recording 
future important events in his life. Over three 
hundred have been thus enrolled. 

The class has had a large influence in the 
community. At the time of its organization it 
was the custom of the boys in the place to 




THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


69 


drop out of Sunday-school at about fifteen. 
But there are now similar classes in the other 
schools, due largely to its example, and their 
membership includes a large proportion of the 
young men of the city. 

So much space has been given to the work 
of this class because its existence for over thirty 
years gives an unusual opportunity to judge of 
the value of its methods. Its history shows, 
among other things, the truth of a statement in 
the preceding section, to the effect that the 
chief factor in the success of any class is the 
teacher. Organization, supplemental activities, 
separate room, these and all other features are 
clearly shown in this case to be distinctly subor¬ 
dinate. This is not said to discourage but 
rather to encourage teachers. Not all teach¬ 
ers have the special ability of this one, but any 
one who will follow the example of this busy 
physician in putting mind and heart and time 
into the work, mastering the subject to be taught, 
gaining the hearts of young men by intimate 
knowledge of and manly sympathy with them, 
and supplementing these essentials by such other 
and secondary means as may be wise, can also 
have large success as a teacher and leader of 
young men. 

Again, this shows what can be done in a com¬ 
paratively small place. In 1870 the population 
of Urbana was only a little over four thousand, 
and is now less than twice that. There are indeed 






70 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


distinct advantages in a smaller place over a city, 
especially in the matter of a more intimate 
acquaintance on the part of both teacher and 
members, and the consequent stronger personal 
ties. 

The history of this class also shows the value 
of patient, persistent work. No plan will work 
itself, nor will the same plan work equally well 
everywhere. There is no patent method which 
will insure success here any more than else¬ 
where, nor will the best plan have any success 
anywhere without honest, consecrated, untiring 
effort. 

2. The Vaughn Class , of the Calvary Baptist 
Sunday-school, Washington, D. C. This has 
been in existence over fourteen years, having 
been organized in February, 1889 by Mr. F. W. 
Vaughn, who is still the teacher and by whose 
name it is commonly called, although being 
No. 11 in the school. Starting in modest fashion, 
with five members, the present enrolment is 
nearly three hundred. Its honorary members, 
as all who leave the city are considered, number 
nearly three thousand, in all walks of life from 
laborer to college president, and are scattered lit¬ 
erally all over the world. This wide distribution is 
due to the rapidly changing character of the 
population of the city, so many of whom are 
students and government employees. 

Its object is thus stated: “This class was 
organized for the purpose of helping to make 




THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


7 1 


bad men good and good men better, and to 
keep them so, through the gospel of the Lord 
Jesus Christ.” 

The question and answer method is but little 
employed in teaching, most of the lesson time 
being occupied by the leader in an informal 
address. This is regarded as one element in the 
large success of the class, and perhaps rightly, 
but its adoption would not be wise for the average 
teacher or class, as before indicated. 

Visitors fill up a card giving name, address, 
church membership, and relation to the Young 
Men’s Christian Association. The secretary, Dr. 
E. C. Rice, writes: “If he is a boarder we try to 
entertain him in our homes and also induce 
him to join the Association.’’ Having none of 
the institutional features of many classes, there 
is hearty cooperation with the Association and 
generous financial support. More than five thou¬ 
sand dollars has been expended for religious 
work. 

Among the various features of its work are 
the following: Young men from outside the city 
are committed to its watch-care; a class prayer¬ 
meeting of forty minutes is held each Sunday 
before the evening service; the teacher, who is 
past middle life, is at home one evening a week 
to receive members and friends; he issues a New 
Year’s letter of greeting; each absentee receives 
by mail a card of regret requesting notice if ill, 
reminding him of the regular appointments, and 




72 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


giving the attendance on the day of his absence; 
if absent two successive Sundays he is visited 
and a written report made to the secretary; 
occasional social gatherings and an annual con¬ 
cert. 

The most marked feature, however, which, so 
far as known to the writer, is peculiar to it and a 
few others patterned after it, is a secret organiza¬ 
tion known as the Vaughn Class Club, to which 
only members of the class are eligible, except 
for honorary membership. Its objects are: “(i) 
To advance the interests of the class; (2) to in¬ 
crease the mutual acquaintance of its members; 
(3) to promote among them a more earnest Chris¬ 
tian life; (4) to afford them material assistance 
when necessary.” 

The officers are: instructor; co-instructor; presi¬ 
dent; two vice-presidents; secretary, who keeps 
the records of both the club and the class; 
treasurer, also of both; financial secretary, to 
collect club dues; historian, who reads a class 
history of each year at the annual banquet; 
crayonist, to assist the instructor; librarian; 
ushers, who serve at the class sessions; organist. 
In addition to these officers of the club who also 
serve the class are chaplain, guide, and guard, 
whose duties pertain to the club only. All offi¬ 
cers are annually elected by ballot. 

The committees are: executive, consisting of 
officers; relief, providing flowers for the sick and 
assistance if needed; picket, to greet strangers 




THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


73 


at every service of the church and visit absentees; 
entertainment. Concerning the picket committee 
the secretary writes: “The young men do a fine 
work in greeting strangers, of whom there are 
many, especially at the evening service. A 
teacher may be never so good, but if he does 
not have the support of the members in wel¬ 
coming strangers his influence will be confined 
to a small class, that will remain such. The 
cooperation of the scholar is under-estimated by 
most Sunday-school workers.” 

The initiation fee and monthly dues are small, 
and used primarily for relief work. On ceasing 
to attend the class a member loses his active 
membership in the club. About one third of 
the class are also club members, many being stu¬ 
dents or others who are unable to attend its 
week-night sessions, which are held once a month. 

Members sign the following pledge: “It is 
the desire of my life to live uprightly, and 
with Christ as my guide and with His help, I 
shall endeavor to reflect His life in mine. I do 
solemnly promise to assist our instructor and 
pastor in their worthy efforts to encourage young 
men to fortify their character by living close to 
Christ.” This is repeated by all at each meet¬ 
ing. 

The candidate is initiated with a simple but 
impressive ritual, designed to emphasize the 
Bible as the light of life’s pathway. After 
giving a pledge of secrecy he is welcomed by 




74 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


the instructor, who gives him the pass-word and 
grip, and offers personal advice of a spiritual 
nature. The initiation is treated as a religious 
service and is conducted with due propriety, as 
indeed the whole session, which is opened and 
closed with prayer. 

The initials of the club are given a double 
significance—“Virtue, Charity, Courage,” of 
which the buttonhole badge is a constant reminder. 
The marked social feature of the club life is an 
annual banquet of high order, at which addresses 
are given by eminent men. All the printing of 
both club and class is of unusual excellence, a 
feature too often slighted. Several classes have 
been established on similar lines and those con¬ 
templating organization may address the secre¬ 
tary. 

3. The Baraca Class and Union. Like most 
movements which have achieved greatness, this 
had a humble beginning. One October Sunday 
in 1890, a group of young men standing outside 
of the house of the First Baptist Church of Syra¬ 
cuse, New York, were invited to come in by a 
young business man, Mr. M. A. Hudson. Re¬ 
pairs were in process and apart from the Sunday- 
school room, which they did not wish to enter, 
the only available seats were the backs of pews, 
and in such unconventional fashion the first 
Baraca class was started. The name is a modi¬ 
fication for convenience of the Hebrew word 
beracah (2 Chron. 20:26), meaning “blessing,” 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


75 


the idea being that the class should be a means of 
blessing both to its members and others. 

From the outset emphasis was laid upon the 
fact that this was to be a class with the study of 
the Bible as its central object. Its distinctly 
religious purpose was honestly put at the front, 
so that no one could be deceived. Yet it was 
also recognized that supplemental features might 
be employed to good advantage. A class organi¬ 
zation was at once formed with various officers 
and committees, to be mentioned later. A pin 
was adopted, being a monogram of the name; 
social, literary and athletic events were held; a 
game and reading room and later a gymnasium 
were opened, and reports were published in the 
newspapers. By such vigorous means the mem¬ 
bership grew rapidly, the average attendance at 
the end of three months being fifty. The enjoy¬ 
ment of these secondary features was conditioned 
upon class attendance. 

Nor was the distinctly spiritual side of young 
men’s natures neglected. In addition to the 
Sunday session for study, a weekly class prayer¬ 
meeting was held and the “secret service” estab¬ 
lished. This came a few years later as a result 
of the fact that while there was a large and grow¬ 
ing membership, amounting to as high as two 
hundred and ten, there were almost no conver¬ 
sions, although the great majority were not pro¬ 
fessing Christians. The teacher invited four who 
were Christians to meet for consultation over the 





76 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


matter, and they agreed (i) to pray every noon 
for the unconverted members; (2) to keep a list 
of those spoken to about their salvation, and (3) 
to meet the secret service members for prayer 
and conference once a month. The desired 
results soon followed, and up to the present 
over two hundred young men have been con¬ 
verted, most of them joining that church. This 
remarkable result is attributed by the founder 
not at all to his teaching, although as a commer¬ 
cial traveler he early learned how to influence 
men, but rather to the prayer and personal work 
of the secret service. 

It was not long before the work of the class 
was known outside of its boundaries and others 
began to be established on its lines, irrespec¬ 
tive of denomination. For, although originating 
in a Baptist church, the movement is in no way 
sectarian, and there are classes in nearly all de¬ 
nominations. In 1898 representatives from the 
various classes met at Utica, New York, and 
organized the Baraca Union of America. “This 
Union is composed of all classes taking the 
Baraca name and methods, for the purpose of 
stimulating among young men the desire for 
Christian knowledge and to provide means by 
which this may be attained, to create an interest 
in and support the Sunday Bible school, and to 
unite its members in practical sympathy and 
service.’ * 

With the formation of the Union the Baraca 





THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


77 


idea spread rapidly, until it is estimated that 
there are now onq thousand classes with fifty 
thousand members, mostly in the United States, 
but also in Canada, England, Scotland, and Porto 
Rico. Three thousand conversions were reported 
last year as due at least in part to their efforts. 
The Union has its headquarters at Syracuse, Mr. 
Hudson being president. A large line of printed 
matter is published detailing methods of work, 
and also an eight-page monthly paper, World- 
Wide Baraca , samples of all of which may be had 
on application. Annual conventions are held 
for inspiration and conference and the promotion 
of the movement. 

A similar work for young women is conducted 
by Philathea classes in affiliation with the Baraca, 
there being some three hundred of such. 

Membership in the Baraca class is open to all 
men over sixteen who register as members on 
attendance slips passed to all present at each 
study session. There are no obligations or 
pledges of any sort, but those absent for four 
consecutive Sundays without excuse are 
dropped. 

The officers, who are elected semi-annually, 
consist of: (i) president, who opens and closes 
each session and calls on the teacher to conduct 
the study; (2) vice-president; (3) secretary; (4) 
treasurer; (5) librarian; (6) standard bearer; (7) 
press reporter, who furnishes the newspapers 
with items about the class and secures subscrip- 





78 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


tions for the Baraca paper; (8) teacher, and one 
or more assistants as desired. The committees 
are appointed by the executive committee, com¬ 
posed of the officers, and are: (i) hustlers, who 
build up the attendance by personal work, in¬ 
viting church attendants to remain, and visiting 
others; (2) membership, who invite visitors to 
become members and visit absentees; (3) music; 
(4) literary, providing debates, lecture courses 
and the like; (5) athletic, for both indoor and 
outdoor sports. 

The class is regarded as an integral part of 
the Sunday-school, meeting with it always for 
the opening and at it-s pleasure for the closing 
exercises. The Baraca platform is thus stated: 
“Young men at work for young men, all standing 
by the Bible and the Bible school.” To its 
adherence to these principles much of its suc¬ 
cess has been due. Another reason lies in the 
following statement by the founder: “We aim in 
our organization to make each man feel that it is 
his class, and not the property of the teacher. 
We try to arouse a strong class spirit, an enthusi¬ 
asm for the Baraca, and pride in its success.” 

Frequent rally days, usually one a month in 
addition to special occasions, help to keep up 
the attendance. The order of exercises sug¬ 
gested is as follows: 

1. Call to order by president, prayer, and 
music. 

2. Distribution of attendance blanks. 





THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


79 


3. Notices by secretary, including cases of 
sickness or need. 

4. Collection by treasurer. 

5. Lesson by teacher (thirty minutes), who 
closes with prayer. 

6. Reports of secretary and treasurer. 

7. “Friendly shake” service and adjournment. 

The attendance slip has spaces for recording 

church attendance, both for that morning and 
the preceding Sunday evening, and a greeting to 
visitors. 

A more recent outgrowth of the movement is 
the establishment of junior classes, for boys 
under sixteen, thus helping to insure its per¬ 
manence. 

The simplicity and elasticity of the Baraca 
plan for young men’s Bible classes make it 
available for use in almost any school, whether in 
city, town or country. Its evident merits easily 
account for its rapid growth, and its founder 
appears to be justified in saying that “it seems 
destined to circle the globe.” If this be real¬ 
ized, much progress will be made in the solution 
of the problem of how to promote the spiritual 
birth and growth of young men. 

4. Other classes. For the sake of those who 
wish further acquaintance with the method and 
results of young men’s Bible classes, the follow¬ 
ing partial list of those from whom reports were 
received is given. Only such special features 
are mentioned in each case as are not given else- 






8o 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


where. The location is stated first, followed by 
the name of the school and of the class leader. 

Lynn, Massachusetts, Washington Avenue 
Baptist, Mr. Albion Bartlett. Has a varied and 
attractive musical service, with short address; 
attendance as high as four hundred; contributes 
largely to church support. 

Chelsea, Massachusetts, First Baptist, Mr. W. 
E. Perry. Printed order of exercises, new for 
each session; educational classes during the 
week; business talks by successful men. 

Hartford, Connecticut, Fourth Congregational, 
Professor G. E. Dawson. Discusses life problems 
for young men; two Sundays devoted to each 
topic, one for lecture and one for informal con¬ 
ference; material drawn from the Bible, science, 
and practical experience. 

New York City, Memorial Baptist, Rev. Edward 
Judson, D.D., pastor. Sunday evening tea for 
members and friends. 

New York City, Fifth Avenue Baptist, Mr. J. 
D. Rockefeller, Jr. A careful system of follow¬ 
ing up visitors and absentees; a club house adjoin¬ 
ing the church building for institutional features 
during the week, several young men residing in 
the house. 

Canton, Ohio, First Baptist, Mrs. J. F. Camp¬ 
bell. Motto: “That other fellow.” 

Warren, Ohio, First Baptist, Rev. C. F. Ral¬ 
ston. Gives attenton to local municipal affairs. 

Dayton, Ohio, First Baptist, Mr. E. M. 




THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


8l 


Thresher. Good Samaritan society for relief of 
members. Motto: “Look up, and not down; 
look forward, and not back; look out, and not 
in; and lend a hand.’* 

Cincinnati, Ohio, First Baptist, Rev. H. T. 
Crane. Monthly visits to places of interest. 

Detroit, Michigan, Woodward Avenue Baptist, 
Mr. W. C. Sprague. An afternoon class made 
up mainly of those whose employment prevents 
attendance upon the regular session of the school. 

Grand] Rapids, Michigan, First Baptist, Rev. 
J. H. Randall, pastor. Discusses practical social 
problems. 

Chicago, Illinois, Forty-first Street Presby¬ 
terian, Mr. H. S. Osborne. Boarding house and 
information bureau; recently gave a stereopticon 
to the church; publishes a monthly paper for the 
church, also a manual containing class directory 
and detailed suggestions for committees; sys¬ 
tematic canvass of district. The weekly printed 
bulletin says: “This class is a brotherhood for 
the cultivation of supreme love for God and com¬ 
panionship with Him, and unselfish self-denying 
love for each other and our fellow men. This is 
accomplished by prayer, Bible study, fellowship 
and service.” 

Chicago, Englewood Baptist, Mr. J. A. Johnson. 
Weekly mimeographed bulletin of general and 
personal information. 

Chicago, Belden Avenue Baptist, Mr. O. S. 
Edwards. Publishes a weekly class paper (with- 




82 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


out advertisements), containing editorials, news, 
announcements and lesson questions for next 
Sunday (an independent course of study being 
followed), and also attendance, by districts, for 
the previous Sunday; division of membership 
into districts with a leader for each, and friendly 
rivalry; open house two nights a week and 
prayer-meeting on a third, with a distinctly evan¬ 
gelistic purpose and results. No collections are 
taken, all expenses being met by voluntary pledges 
payable personally to the treasurer. 

Chicago, Immanuel Baptist, Mr. Henry Bond. 
Orchestra for study session and entertainments; 
paid secretary, who gives his whole time to 
furthering the interests of the class and any 
who need its help; finding young men in board¬ 
ing houses and elsewhere who have recently 
come to the city; church building open the entire 
time each day and evening. 

The work of men’s classes in Chicago has 
been furthered by the establishment of a special 
department for it in the Cook County Sunday- 
school Association and the adoption of a button¬ 
hole badge, a small white circle within a red one. 
A similar department has recently been estab¬ 
lished in the Illinois Association, and there is a 
prospect of the movement spreading to other 
states. 

A detailed description of the Ailing class of the 
Central Presbyterian Church of Rochester, New 
York, is given in Modern Methods in Church Work , 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


83 


pages 167-172. Other classes with methods 
similar to those already given are described in 
The Sunday School Times , 1899, No. 25; 1900, Nos. 
26, 40 and 51; 1901, Nos. 16 and 34. 

There is one danger confronting the large 
class with a highly-developed organization, not 
peculiar to it but worth attention here. It is 
that the class shall come to regard itself as if not 
superior to at least aloof from the school and 
church of which it is legitimately a part. This 
is well expressed by one pastor who lives not 
very far from one of the large classes before men¬ 
tioned: “There is the same danger here as in the 
young people’s society, namely, that the young 
men are united to an organization many times 
rather than to Christ and the church. I under¬ 
stand that in - there is little interest on 

the part of the young men in the church. There 
is something fundamentally wrong in such 
methods.” 

That such a state of affairs, however, is not a 
necessary result, and that quite the reverse can be 
attained, is evident from the more than two hun¬ 
dred conversions in the original Baraca class, 
and also from this statement concerning the class 
at Lynn, Massachusetts, already mentioned by 
its founder, Rev. C. S. Cooper: “About one 
hundred members of the class, many of them 
with their families, have been received into the 
church and are among its most valiant support¬ 
ers. At a class meeting not long ago, several 







84 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


hundred dollars was pledged in weekly offerings 
for church support, and in great measure by 
those who were not members of the church. 
Furthermore, the men who come into the church 
from the class begin almost at once to give for 
its support and to take special positions in the 
Sunday-school and other departments of the 
church proper. There is a class spirit which is 
intentionally built up in order to attract and 
hold the young men whom the church proper 
would never reach. With wise management, I 
see no reason for alarm in the use of such 
organizations in connection with our churches. 
Anyhow, a tree is known by its fruits.” 

From the foregoing it clearly appears that the 
young men’s Bible class, organized along some 
of the lines indicated, emphasizing Bible study 
and the spiritual life as primary, and also con¬ 
ducting such secondary work as its situation 
may justify, has in it very large possibilities for 
effective service in furthering the spiritual wel¬ 
fare of young men, on the whole probably sur¬ 
passing any other single organization within a 
local church. 





CHAPTER V 

THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SOCIETY 
A. GENERAL SURVEY 

One of the marked features of church life in 
recent years has been the largely increased part 
taken by young people, especially through the 
agency of societies of various forms and names 
to which both sexes belong. The existence of 
such societies, however, is by no means new. As 
far back as 1724 there were a few such in New 
England, as appears from a little book published 
in that year by Cotton Mather, entitled Proposals 
for the Revival of a Dying Religion by Well 
Ordered Societies. “Such societies,” he writes, 
“have been tried and proved to be strong engines 
to uphold the power of godliness.” But the 
Puritan fathers evidently frowned upon the dan¬ 
gerous innovation of the young folks, for the 
movement soon died out. 1 

The modern development of the young people’s 
society is practically contemporaneous with the 
Christian Endeavor Society movement, which 
originated under the pastorate of Rev. F. E. 
Clark, D.D., in the Williston Congregational 
Church of Portland, Maine, in 1881. There were 

1 Training the Church of the Future , pp. 90*93- 
85 



86 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


already hundreds of societies in existence 
throughout the land, which in various ways and 
with varying success were seeking to further the 
spiritual welfare of young people. But this one 
had so many good features that it commended 
itself to others, and as soon as its plans became 
widely known was taken as a pattern by both old 
and new societies everywhere, until to-day there 
is in the United States a membership of over 
1,800,000, and a large number in foreign coun¬ 
tries. 

A marked and highly valued feature of the 
Christian Endeavor movement has been its feder¬ 
ation of young people of many different denom¬ 
inations, thus emphasizing the essential unity in 
faith and service of those whose little differences 
too often keep them asunder and so hinder the 
growth of the kingdom of God. The following 
list of denominations in the Christian Endeavor 
federation is given by Dr. Clark: “Practically all 
the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Disciples, 
Christians, Moravians, Cumberland Presbyterians, 
Reformed Church of America, Reformed Church 
in the United States, United Evangelical, Re¬ 
formed Episcopal, Methodist Protestants, Primi¬ 
tive Methodists, Free Baptists, Mennonites, 
Church of God, Friends, and African Methodists; 
large sections of Baptists, Lutherans, United Pres¬ 
byterians and United Brethren, and smaller sec¬ 
tions of the Protestant Episcopal and Methodist 
Episcopal churches. Surely this is a goodly 




THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SOCIETY 87 


federation to have grown up virtually in twenty 
years.” 1 

As indicated in this statement, there are several 
societies whose membership is confined to some 
one denomination. These owe their existence 
partly to a zeal for particular interpretations of 
Scripture, which it is feared young people will 
underrate if brought into the wider Christian 
Endeavor fellowship. Another cause has been 
the desire to provide more thorough instruction 
both in Scripture and Christian history than the 
Endeavor plan offered. Yet again, the vast pro¬ 
portions of the Endeavor movement have seemed 
to some a positive hindrance to the maintenance 
of a healthy individualism, which no denomina¬ 
tion can afford to lose. “There is yet to be 
worked out,” says a pastor of long experience, 
“a perfect plan of cooperation between the 
Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor 
and the denominational societies. The latter 
have their reason for existence in the perpetua¬ 
tion of denominational individuality and the pro¬ 
motion of denominational activity; the latter has 
the advantage of wider Christian unity and cooper¬ 
ation.” There are about 2,500,000 members of 
such denominational organizations, swelling the 
total membership of all young people’s societies 
in the United States to nearly or quite 4,500,000, 
exclusive of boys and girls. 

The possibilities within these millions of young 


1 Training the Church oj the Future , p. 202. 





88 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


Christians for the advancement of “the church 
of the future,” and in no small degree the 
church of the present as well, is beyond calcu¬ 
lation. From the standpoint of their own welfare 
also, the importance of their development in 
spiritual life and their efficient training in Chris¬ 
tian service can hardly be overestimated. Since 
over 1,500,000 of them are young men, a con¬ 
sideration of the young people’s society as an 
agency for their spiritual betterment claims a 
place in this study. 


B. PURPOSE 

From the history of the movement it appears 
that the young people’s society is not a product 
of revolution but rather of evolution, in the 
wider sense of that much abused word. It is a 
natural development, due to an increase of spirit¬ 
ual life within the church and changing condi¬ 
tions without. The quickened life of the age, in 
its ever multiplying activities, demanded a cor¬ 
responding quickening of life within the church, if 
it would keep its position. The greatly increased 
participation of young people in all other affairs 
of life demanded a like increased participation in 
the affairs of the church, if it would keep them 
within its fold. The young people’s society is 
the answer of the church to these demands, and 
thus presents a new evidence of its vitality as a 
living body, capable of adjusting its organism 
to changed environment. The young people’s 



THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SOCIETY 89 


society has a distinct function in the ecclesias¬ 
tical body, that of training young Christians. As 
such a local society is not a thing apart from 
the church with which it is connected, as too 
often an utterly inexcusable spirit of rivalry and 
even insubordination seem to make it. Speaking 
of this relation Dr. Clark says: “It was and is the 
church, a part of the church, and the church 
training the young. It is the church meeting 
in the young people’s service, the church work¬ 
ing in its young people’s committees, the church 
praying through the voices of its youth.” 1 

The following extracts from the constitutions 
of three societies, being in each case models sug¬ 
gested by the national organizations, will clearly 
define their purposes and serve as types of all. 

Christian Endeavor: “The object of this 
society shall be to promote an earnest Christian 
life among its members, to increase their mutual 
acquaintance, and to make them more useful in 
the service of God.” 

Baptist Union: “The object of this union shall 
be to secure the increased spirituality of our Bap¬ 
tist young people, their stimulation in Christian 
service, their edification in Scripture knowledge, 
their instruction in Baptist doctrine and history, 
and their enlistment in all missionary activity 
through existing denominational organizations.” 

Epworth League (Methodist): “The object of 
the league is to promote intelligent and vital 


1 Training the Church of the Future , p. 101. 





90 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


piety in the young members and friends of the 
church, to aid them in the attainment of purity of 
heart and in constant growth in grace, and to 
train them in works of mercy and help.” 

C. MEMBERSHIP BASIS 

How old must one be and how old must one 
not be in order to belong to a young people’s 
society? The former of these questions is more 
readily answered than the latter. The growth 
of junior societies has provided for boys and 
girls up to about twelve, and the more recent 
establishment of intermediate societies has taken 
care of those under sixteen. But as yet no gradu¬ 
ate society as such exists, unless the larger church 
organization be so considered, as indeed it may 
well be. It is safe to assume that in general the 
age limits set in this study, from sixteen to 
thirty-five inclusive, hold fairly well in young 
people’s societies, especially for young men, 
there being few beyond either extreme. In the 
Endeavor societies, and commonly with others 
as well, there are three classes of members: 
active, associate, and honorary. The last named 
are usually few and of little consequence; the 
second are commonly expected to get into the 
first class in due time, being not yet professed 
Christians; the first alone concern our purpose. 

Article III of the Endeavor constitution thus 
defines active membership: ‘‘The active mem¬ 
bers of this society shall consist of all young 




THE YOUNG PEOPLES’ SOCIETY 


91 


persons who believe themselves Christians and 
who sincerely desire to accomplish the objects 
above specified. Voting power shall be vested 
only in the active members.” Other societies 
have substantially the same rule. A further 
requirement of Endeavor membership is con¬ 
tained in Article VIII: ‘‘All persons on becom¬ 
ing active members of the society shall sign the 
following pledge: ‘Trusting in the Lord Jesus 
Christ for strength, I promise Him that I will 
strive to do whatever He would like to have me 
do; that I will make it the rule of my life to pray 
and to read the Bible every day, and to support 
my own church in every way, especially by 
attending her regular Sunday and mid-week 
services, unless prevented by some reason that I 
can conscientiously give to my Saviour; and that, 
just as far as I know how, throughout my whole 
life I will endeavor to lead a Christian life. As 
an active member I promise to be present at and 
to take some part, aside from singing, in every 
Christian Endeavor prayer-meeting, unless hin¬ 
dered by some reason that I can conscientiously 
give to my Lord and Master. If obliged to be 
absent from the monthly consecration meeting I 
will, if possible, send at least a verse of Scripture 
to be read in response to my name at the roll 
call.’ ” The Epworth League, Baptist Union, 
and other societies have similar pledges, variously 
worded but agreeing in binding the signer to a 
general observance of the requirements of Chris- 




Q 2 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


tian living and some active participation in the 
prayer-meeting. In some societies the pledge is 
optional, and that of the Union adds: “if it is 
possible to do so with sincerity and truth.” 

The pledge has long been a bone of contention. 
Dr. Clark says: “When the pledge is carefully 
studied, it will be seen that only the common 
duties of the Christian life are demanded; private 
prayer and Bible study, outspoken confession of 
Christ before men, and loyalty to Christ’s church. 
All this is embodied in every church covenant. 
It is here made specific and definite for imma¬ 
ture and inexperienced Christians.” 1 Apart from 
the matter of particpation in the prayer-meeting, 
probably few persons will object to such a pledge 
save those who have a general objection to all 
vows in connection with spiritual life, holding that 
they are contrary to the New Testament idea of 
freedom in Christ. Taken as a whole, however, 
it undoubtedly proves a stumbling block to many 
conscientious young people and keeps them out 
of the society, thus depriving it of the cooperation 
of those who would otherwise be most valuable 
members. This is especially true of young men, 
who commonly take a more serious view of such 
matters than young women. On the other hand, 
the ease with which its solemn obligations are 
assumed by many others, only to be if possible 
more easily broken time and again, results unques¬ 
tionably in a lowering of moral 'tone and a weak- 


1 Training the Church of the Future , p. 186 . 





THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY 


93 


ening of character. It is certainly open to question 
whether, on the whole and in the long run, there 
would not be a decided net gain from the entire 
abandonment of the pledge. It is at best and 
confessedly a crutch for the weak, “for immature 
and inexperienced Christians” its originator says, 
and it probably keeps more in that condition 
through dependence on it than it helps to a strong 
virile manhood in Christ. It is the prayer-meeting 
feature that arouses the most objection, and some 
consideration will be given to it in the next 
section. 

Professor Coe, whose helpful book on The 
Spiritual Life has already been quoted, writes as 
follows in a personal letter: “A vow is either a 
promise made to men or one made to God. If 
made to men its performance should be based 
upon some actual claim which one man has, mor¬ 
ally at least, upon another, and in that case it is 
in morals what a contract is in law. On the other 
hand a promise made to God can not possibly 
have this character. It is nothing more than a rec¬ 
ognition of duty and a resolution to do it. If, at 
any future time, a new and contradictory notion 
of duty is acquired, the earlier vow becomes null 
and void, since we are required always to live up 
to our present light. 

“Is the vow taken upon admission to the vari¬ 
ous young people’s societies a promise to men or 
one to God? If to men, this quality of it should 
be clearly brought out, and it should be enforced 





94 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


by the persons to whom the promise is made and 
who, as before said, have some kind of moral claim 
upon the maker. Either the promise should not 
be made at all, or else it should be enforced, if 
necessary, with penalties. On the other hand, if 
it is a promise made to God it must, in order to 
be valid at all, express something that God is sup¬ 
posed to require of us, and even then we must be 
open to new convictions as to what He requires. 
In this case, therefore, it is difficult to see how the 
promise can properly become a public matter. 
At most it should be a private resolution. The 
vow is lacking in clear ethical discrimination. It 
is not clearly an expression of the claims of one 
man upon another, and is surely not a recognition 
of any clear demand which God makes upon us. 
It tends therefore to confuse and then to sophisti¬ 
cate the conscience.” 

D. CONFESSION OF CHRIST 

I. Value of Testimony. Public confession of 
Himself was declared by Christ to be requisite to 
His confession of the believer ‘‘before the Father 
who is in heaven.” It is one of the fundamental 
principles of psychology that self-expression pro¬ 
motes growth. There is thus both a divine and 
human sanction for some form of personal par¬ 
ticipation in public religious exercises which shall 
express devotion to Christ. In the young people’s 
societies a valuable opportunity of this sort is 
furnished by the weekly prayer-meeting, and one 




THE YOUNG PEOPLE S SOCIETY 


95 


which the young believer can ill afford to let 
slip. 

2. Compulsory testimony. So far all will be 
agreed, but when it is proposed that an “inex¬ 
perienced and immature Christian” shall solemnly 
bind himself to do this on every such occasion, 
disagreement at once arises. To be sure, this 
participation may be only the reading of Scrip¬ 
ture, but the emphasis is so laid upon personal 
testimony that this is practically regarded as the 
primary if not the only means of keeping the 
pledge. That such requirement does help some 
faltering young confessors is not for a moment 
denied, but regard must also be had to the harm 
it unquestionably does to many others. In 
addition to the considerations against the pledge 
in general, presented at the close of the pre¬ 
ceding section, the following are submitted 
against this feature in particular. Compulsory 
testimony puts the emphasis upon having to say 
something, not much matter what, rather than 
upon having something to say. It thus fosters 
glibness at the expense of thought in a region 
where the most careful thinking ought to be the 
rule. It tends to superficiality in matters of pro- 
foundest depth and promotes triviality in the 
most weighty affairs of life, those that have to 
do with the soul. In each of these ways it 
does positive harm to divinely-given mental 
powers. It seeks to draw water out of a cistern, 
too often broken and empty, whereas the cistern 





q6 the church and young men 


should be fed with underground streams of 
Christian love and service until it becomes an 
overflowing fountain. Saddest of all, but un¬ 
questionably true in many cases, compulsory 
testimony directly fosters hypocrisy. The “im¬ 
mature and inexperienced Christian” feels obliged 
to say something, he repeats what he hears older 
ones say, and even Scripture passages that cor¬ 
rectly describe the experiences of others but 
which do not at all describe his own, and this un¬ 
conscious deception of himself leads easily and all 
too often to the deliberate deception of others. 
In the course of over twenty years the writer has 
heard a great many testimonies in the meetings 
of many different young people’s societies. He 
is reasonably sure that every one that was worth 
giving was given not because of the compulsion 
of a pledge but out of a heart full of love for 
Christ, and so would have been given without it. 
He is equally sure that those which were given 
under such compulsion did no good to the 
hearers but only harm to the speaker, while the 
many who violated the pledge were unquestion¬ 
ably weakened in character thereby. As one 
pastor writes: “The pledge deadens spiritual life 
by making callous the conscience through re¬ 
peated disobedience.” 

It is worthy of note that while three-fourths of 
the eighty-five societies reporting on this point 
rightly lay emphasis upon testimony as a means 
of spiritual growth, a much smaller proportion re- 




THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SOCIETY 


97 


quire it, and a still smaller proportion of those 
who require a pledge to this effect use any means 
to secure its observance. Bad as it is to let an 
ordinance become a dead letter, in this case it 
may be good, especially if it leads to the ultimate 
repeal of a regulation that is a help to some but 
a hurt to far more. It will be gladly admitted 
that young people’s prayer-meetings have become 
a great power for good, that untold streams of 
spiritual blessing have resulted from the union 
of the rills of devotion and personal experience 
there narrated, but they are not properly trace¬ 
able to the much overworked pledge idea. They 
have come not because of it but rather in spite of 
it, and the sooner it is removed the better for all 
concerned. 

3. Character of testimony. Nothing has been said 
yet as to what this testimony should consist of 
in order to be of the most help to both speaker 
and hearer. Of course no hard-and-fast rules 
can be laid down, for no two lives are identical, 
and a prime requisite of all testimony based on 
experience is that it be true to the facts of the 
case, and hence it will be infinitely varied. But 
some suggestions may not be amiss. 

In the first place, it is neither pleasant nor 
profitable to turn oneself inside out spiritually in 
public. The injunction to “confess your sins 
one to another” does not need to be obeyed 
on the street corner nor in the prayer-meeting, 
at least not in gruesome detail. It is possible to 



98 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


be a Pharisee in parading one’s sins. Again, 
the testimony which involves introspection and 
self-estimation is seldom if ever productive of 
good. These things are well enough in their 
place, if practiced in a moderate degree and with¬ 
out morbidness. There is probably not enough 
of them in the life of the average young man. 
The very last thing many of them want to do is 
to take an honest searching inventory of spiritual 
stock. Such a process would often bring a young 
man to his senses and on to his knees in short 
order, Christian though he be. “It is a good 
thing,” writes another pastor, “for a young man 
to do some thinking about himself and measure 
himself according to a standard. It is well for 
him to know where he ought to be and where he 
really is.” But the place for this is in private 
and not in public, even the semi-private public 
of a small prayer-meeting. 

Testimony of this sort requires a spiritual pro¬ 
cess very much like that of a child daily dig¬ 
ging up his beans to see how much they have 
grown—interesting to him but hard on them. 
Much of our best spiritual growth is out of sight 
of the world, and flourishes best when not made 
the subject of an anxious curiosity. On the other 
hand, the testimony that “looks unto Jesus, the 
author and perfecter of our faith”; that exalts 
Him; that expresses a genuine love for Him; 
that says little or nothing of one’s own good 
deeds, but much of those of others; that will 





THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SOCIETY 


99 


“help your fallen brother rise,” giving new 
courage to fearful hearts, “strengthening weak 
hands and confirming feeble knees”—testimony 
of this sort is thrice blessed in that it honors the 
Master, helps the hearer and strengthens the 
speaker. 

4. Length of meeting. It may be safely said that 
the average young people’s meeting is too long. 
This applies to such as are held on Sunday even¬ 
ing, which is by far the most common time and, 
with all but quite large societies, probably the 
best. Beginning from an hour to an hour and a 
quarter or even an hour and a half before the time 
of public worship, they drag out their too often 
weary existence to such a length as to dull rather 
than quicken both mental and spiritual life. Many 
of those in attendance imagine themselves excused 
from any responsibility in connection with the fol¬ 
lowing service and do not remain, while many that 
do are in a positively poorer condition either to 
help or be helped by the larger and on the whole 
more important meeting. This may seem over- 
critical but it is said with a full appreciation of 
the good that is done in spite of the protracted 
session, and is moreover based on a somewhat 
long experience and wide observation. The 
young people’s meeting is not primarily a service 
of worship and hence needs no elaborate pro¬ 
gram. Neither is it primarily a meeting for 
instruction, justifying long addresses by the leader 
or self-appointed edifiers. Its primary object is 


L.ofC. 



IOO 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


the mutual strengthening of faith in and love for 
Christ on the part of young disciples by means of 
Scripture, hymns, prayers, and testimonies, such 
as before referred to. In the great majority of 
cases this can easily be compassed in a well- 
conducted meeting of thirty minutes, or forty at 
the most in the case of larger societies. Then 
after an interval of five minutes, if possible in 
the open air, the young men and young women 
can bring to the support of the evening service of 
worship minds that have not been dulled by a 
vitiated atmosphere and spirits that have not 
been weighed down by the slow dragging of a 
meeting in which the leader must continually 
remind the negligent and timid of their pledged 
obligation to take part. So conducted, the young 
people’s meeting would be a far greater source 
of help than it already is in the solution of the 
perplexing Sunday evening problem, that burdens 
many a faithful pastor well-nigh to breaking. So 
conducted, too, it would gain the support of 
many more young men, for it would be active 
and wide awake, qualities which attract them no 
less surely than slowness and sleepiness repel 
them. 


E. SERVICE FOR CHRIST 

In its widest sense service includes confession, 
but for convenience it is here, as commonly, 
applied to deeds rather than words. A small boy 
of four happy summers frequently says to his 




THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SOCIETY 


IOI 


mother, “I can’t tell you how much I love you, 
but I can do things to show you how much I 
love you.” One day, tired of his usual play, he 
climbed on to his father’s knee and asked for 
something to do. On being told just to love his 
father for awhile, he protested, “But that isn’t 
any doing.” The child’s desire for something 
concrete to do, for some tangible way in which to 
express his love, has its counterpart in the desire 
of every Christian heart to engage in some real 
service that shall give evidence of its love for 
Christ. In the preceding section reference was 
made to the recognized psychological principle 
that expression promotes growth, and it was 
applied to prayer-meeting testimony. But 
deeds are as truly and often even more truly than 
words an expression of the inner life. One’s 
daily life before the world has a vastly greater 
power in determining his spiritual growth than 
an occasional testimony before a small audience. 
What one actually does for Christ is of more 
importance than what he says about Christ. 
Both faith and love grow more through their 
expression in deeds than in words. 

Before the rise of the Christian Endeavor 
movement the large emphasis in young people’s 
societies was put upon instruction and confes¬ 
sion, and its distinct contribution may fairly be 
said to have been the putting of an equal emphasis 
upon service. This is of high value not only, as 
already noted, for the fostering of spiritual growth, 




102 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


but also for furnishing the strong foundation 
needed in the periods of spiritual unrest that 
come to most young men sooner or later. There 
is no surer anchorage in times of storm and 
stress, no better cure for spiritual “blues,” no 
better preventive of distressing doubt than whole¬ 
some hearty activity in Christian service. “It 
is just this normal, healthy, necessary activity 
that the Christian Endeavor Society attempts to 
supply. The philosophy of its success, so far 
as it has been successful, is that it fits the needs 
of the young soul. It is no haphazard experi¬ 
ment. Its roots run down into the nature of 
youth.” 1 The chief medium for this concrete 
expression of love to Christ, this confession of 
Him by deeds of service for Him, is furnished in 
the Endeavor plan by offices and various com¬ 
mittees. According to the model constitution 
these are the following. The officers are presi¬ 
dent, vice-president, corresponding secretary, 
recording secretary, and treasurer. None of 
these need any explanation save possibly the 
third, whose duty is “to keep the local society 
in communication with the state and local Chris¬ 
tian Endeavor Unions and with the United 
Society” (the national organization). Four com¬ 
mittees are specified. The lookout “brings in 
new members, and affectionately looks after 
and reclaims any that seem indifferent to their 
duties as outlined in the pledge.” Enough per- 


1 Training the Church of the Future , p. 95 . 





THE YOUNG PEOPLE^ SOCIETY 


haps has already been said about the pledge, but 
these words of an experienced pastor as to this 
means of enforcing it may be added: “The offi¬ 
cial surveillance of the members to see whether 
or not they are keeping the pledge, and to call 
them to account if they do not keep it, is of 
doubtful wisdom. The kind of fidelity which is 
produced by this device will not prove to be the 
highest. The motive to which these methods 
appeal is far from being the noblest. The 
society would better depend for its success upon 
the enthusiasm for some good work which it can 
inspire in its members, than upon the discipline 
which it can exercise over them. It is failing to¬ 
day to secure the cooperation of a large num¬ 
ber of the best and strongest young people in 
our churches, whose intelligence and conscien¬ 
tiousness it greatly needs, because it insists on 
these mild forms of censorship.” 1 These words 
are especially true of young men, whose spirit 
of independence does not take kindly to any sort 
of espionage, however moderate. The duties of 
the prayer-meeting committee are to provide 
topics and leaders “and to do what it can to 
secure faithfulness to the prayer-meeting pledge.” 
The social committee welcomes strangers and 
furthers mutual acquaintance by occasional social 
gatherings. The executive committee, consisting 
of the pastor and all officers and chairmen, con¬ 
siders all matters of business requiring debate 


1 The Christian Pastor , p. 322 . 





104 THE church and young men 


before their presentation to the society. All com¬ 
mittees except the last present a written report 
at each monthly business session, ordinarily held 
in connection with a prayer-meeting. In addi¬ 
tion to these, several optional committees are 
provided for: information, to keep the society 
acquainted with Endeavor work throughout the 
world; Sunday-school, for any desired coopera¬ 
tion; calling; music; missionary, to interest the 
society in home and foreign missions, and furnish 
aid in any practicable manner; flower, for church 
decoration and the sick; temperance; good liter¬ 
ature, to promote the distribution and reading of 
good books and papers, including religious tracts. 

There are still other forms of activity which the 
Endeavor movement has either originated or 
taken on in recent years. One is the Tenth 
Legion, which is not a formal organization but 
simply “an enrolment of Christians whose prac¬ 
tice it is to give to God for His work not less 
than one-tenth of their income.” There are no 
fees nor dues of any sort. Another is the Quiet 
Hour, also simply an enrolment, made up of 
those who set apart at least fifteen minutes a day 
for personal communion with God. Yet another 
is the Macedonian Phalanx, “an enrolment of 
those that give at least twenty dollars a year 
to the support of individual missionaries and 
mission workers.” Either individuals or societies 
may be enrolled. The Home Circle is a move¬ 
ment for the promotion of religion in the home, es- 




THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SOCIETY 105 


pecially through the maintenance of the invaluable 
but sadly neglected institution of family worship. 

The Christian Endeavor Civic Club is the 
most formal of these many movements, and has 
for now ten years been recognized as one of the 
departments of Endeavor work. Each club has 
a definite organization with officers and com¬ 
mittees, and is granted a numbered charter by 
the United Society. The object is thus given in 
the model constitution: “The promotion of a bet¬ 
ter citizenship, through the study of civic prob¬ 
lems, through training in debate and parliamentary 
practice, and through such active participation in 
public affairs as maybe practicable and proper.” 
That there is a large need for such training of 
young citizens, and older ones too, is all too evi¬ 
dent. Work of this sort certainly appeals to 
the average young man a thousandfold more than 
the petty details, however necessary, of ordinary 
committee work. Under wise leadership, which 
shall avoid the rocks of mere partizanship and the 
shoals of useless discussion of unimportant mat¬ 
ters, such a club may be a means of great good 
not only to the members but to the community. 
It may also render large service to the church 
by relieving it of the too often true charge that 
it is concerned merely with other-world affairs, 
that it is a device for getting men into a future 
and far away heaven rather than, as Jesus taught, 
the sovereign agency for the promotion of the 
kingdom of heaven here and now. 




106 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


Concerning all these phases of Christian activity 
furthered by the Endeavor movement informa¬ 
tion may be found in Dr. Clark’s book, or may be 
had from the United Society, Tremont Temple, 
Boston, Massachusetts. 

The work of the Epworth League, which em¬ 
braces nearly all the young people’s societies 
in the Methodist Episcopal church, with a mem¬ 
bership of approximately 1,500,000, is divided 
into four departments, as follows: (1) Spiritual 
work, including the prayer-meeting, spiritual 
welfare of members, personal evangelism, Bible 
study, Sunday-school interests, the morning 
watch, open-air meetings, and Junior League. 
(2) World Evangelism, including a study of 
church benevolences, Christian stewardship, mis¬ 
sionary committee, meetings, study classes, mis¬ 
sionary library and literature, and cycle of 
prayer. (3) Mercy and Help, covering system¬ 
atic visitation, hospitals and other charities, care 
of the sick and poor, temperance, social purity, 
and good citizenship. (4) Literary and Social 
Work, including general literary culture, lectures, 
libraries, church literature, music for all meetings, 
promotion of social life, and seeking new mem¬ 
bers. Each of these departments is in charge of 
one of the vice-presidents. 

The distinguishing feature of the Baptist Union 
is its emphasis upon “culture for service.” There 
are three courses of study: (1) Bible Readers’, 
with daily assignments and brief comments; 




THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SOCIETY 107 


(2) Conquest Missionary, with monthly meetings 
for the study of home and foreign missions; and 

(3) Sacred Literature, for the systematic study of 
Scripture, church history and Christian doctrine. 
In each course annual written examinations are 
held and diplomas awarded by the national offi¬ 
cers. The headquarters of both the Union and 
the League are in Chicago. 

Other denominations having separate societies 
have still different plans in minor details, but those 
given will suffice to indicate the great and varied 
work being carried on by the young people’s 
Societies throughout the land. The array of 
departments and committees reminds one of 
Ezekiel’s vision of the wheels and the wheels 
within wheels. If, like those which the prophet 
saw, these modern wheels have “the spirit of life 
within them” great results will be accomplished, 
as indeed is largely the case. But it takes so much 
power just to make “the wheels go’round” of this 
highly geared and beautifully built religious ma¬ 
chine that there is too often little or none left for 
effective service. Many a society needs to learn 
what every machinist knows, that every shaft, 
pulley, belt, and cog transmits less power than it 
receives. The simpler the machinery, and the 
nearer the point of the application of power is to 
the source of power, the greater will be the result, 
whether that power be of wind, water, steam, 
electricity, or the Holy Spirit. 

Recognizing with devout gratitude all that 




108 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


these thousands of societies are doing in real and 
effective Christian service, there is one particular 
in which their results are far from commensurate 
with the energy consumed. One of the most 
important questions on the schedule for society 
reports was: “How many conversions of young 
men the past twelve months are traceable primari¬ 
ly or largely or partly to the society?’' This is 
admittedly not an easy question to answer, for in 
every conversion so many human factors play a 
part that it is difficult to determine their relative 
value. But it is reasonable to expect that any 
society, composed of earnest spiritually minded 
young men and women, should be at least in part 
instrumental in the conversion of one or more 
young men in the course of a year, and that so 
definitely as to be manifest. Yet out of ninety- 
two societies, so distributed among denomina¬ 
tions and different sections as to be presumably 
representative of all in a fair degree, only six 
reported a total of twenty-one conversions, and 
two others “several.” Considering that the mem¬ 
bership of these societies is over 7500, of whom 
over 2500 are young men, it is very evident that 
whatever else of good the young people’s societies 
are doing they are sadly deficient in winning young 
men to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. The society 
is rightly regarded as “the training school of the 
church,” but it seems to be forgotten by its lead¬ 
ers that there is no more important or efficient 
means of training for service than that expressed 




THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SOCIETY 


iog 


in the title of Dr. Trumbull’s helpful book, Indi¬ 
vidual Work for Individuals. This is the weakest 
point in the whole young people’s society move¬ 
ment, and for its immediate strengthening some 
of the other forms of work, good as they all are in 
their place, might well give way, temporarily at 
least and permanently if need be. 

F. CONCLUSION 

Much of what precedes in this chapter has been 
said of societies as a whole, yet always with the 
case of young men uppermost in thought even if 
not so expressed. In this concluding section are 
some matters especially concerning them. As 
already indicated, the proportion of young men 
in the societies is a little over one-third, or 36 per 
cent to be exact. This is practically identical with 
the proportion of males in the entire church 
membership, which, as noted at the beginning of 
this study, was found to be 3 7 per cent. It is 
evident therefore from this, as from the closing 
part of the preceding section, that the societies 
are accomplishing practically nothing in the way 
of solving the problem of the relative lack of 
men in the churches, although the attendance of 
young men at their meetings was slightly higher 
in proportion than upon the evening church ser¬ 
vice, 33 per cent as against 30. This is not due to 
any failure of the societies to give them some¬ 
thing to do, for 51 per cent of the officers and 
chairmen were reported to be young men, and they 




no 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


were the leaders of 45 per cent of the last twenty 
meetings preceding the time of the reports, a ratio 
in each case higher than that of their member¬ 
ship. To what then is this due? 

One of the questions bore directly upon this 
point, “Wherein does the society fail to help 
young men?” and here are some of the answers 
from pastors and officers: “The society confines 
its efforts to its own members; worships itself, a 
common fault of Endeavor societies; does not 
put forth enough effort for the unconverted; lack 
of personal work by male members; takes too 
little interest in them; there is too little practical 
work in proportion to the talk; young men are 
given nothing practical to do; lack of earnestness 
in the society; lack of social power; meetings not 
interesting, sufficiently varied, nor pointed in 
purpose; meetings prosy and slow; we have not 
adapted our work to thinking young men, 
especially those who are too conscientious to 
sign the pledge; the work of the society is too 
distinctively spiritual for them; the ordinary 
young man (in lower New York) has done 
violence to his religious nature.” 

These answers in each case relate to some 
individual society, but several of them are given 
by two or more and probably all are of more or 
less general application. All place the burden of 
the blame upon the societies themselves except 
the last two. These recognize, as every worker 
in spiritual affairs does, the literal truth of Paul’s 




THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SOCIETY 


III 


statement, “the mind of the flesh is enmity against 
God,” and hence cannot be expected to take 
kindly to matters of religion. Nevertheless, this 
does not acquit the societies of blame for such 
self-confessed shortcomings as most of those 
cited. They are equipped with “weapons mighty 
before God to the casting down of strongholds” of 
sin in the human hearts, yet they are manifestly 
failing to use those weapons effectively to any 
adequate extent. 

There is evidently need of a general awakening 
to a realization of the magnitude of both the 
opportunities and responsibilities of young 
people’s societies for promoting the spiritual wel¬ 
fare of young men. The primary means to this 
end, as in all Christian service, is the deepening 
and quickening of the spiritual life of the individ¬ 
ual members. There is no substitute for this. 
But there are also secondary means, and among 
them these will be found helpful. Let more 
emphasis be laid on Christian activity that really 
amounts to something. Young men in their 
every-day life are engaged in work that produces 
definite, tangible results, and it is not strange that 
much of what in most societies passes for work 
appears to them to be petty and trifling, if not 
altogether useless. Again, let greater recognition 
be made of such real practical Christian service 
as a mode of confessing Christ that is of equal 
value with prayer-meeting testimony—it is really 
far greater. A pastor who is successful in work 




11 2 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


for young men writes: “Too much emphasis is 
laid upon speaking in the meeting. There are 
other methods of expressing the religious life and 
I do not think this is the most natural one for a 
young man. He would a great deal rather do 
some helpful thing for somebody else.” Further¬ 
more, appeal should be made to the heroic ele¬ 
ment that exists more or less in all young men. 
Often too little rather than too much is expected 
of them. The ordinary methods of the young 
people’s society seem to indicate a belief that 
young men “can be coaxed into the kingdom and 
satisfied with entertainments and games and pink 
teas and oyster suppers,” as Dr. Clark puts it. 
The average young man rejoices in his strength 
and is attracted by tasks that are worthy of that 
strength, just as surely as he is repelled by 
whatever seems light and trivial. As a final 
suggestion, let there be more of definite work 
by young men on behalf of young men. The 
advantages of this will be considered in the 
chapter on Brotherhoods, and is mentioned here 
only to call attention to a large but commonly 
neglected field of usefulness for young people’s 
societies. Especially should such work as this be 
done by the societies in churches where there are 
no separate organizations of young men, and 
many of the methods employed by them can be 
used to good advantage by the societies. 




CHAPTER VI 

THE BROTHERHOOD 

In the preceding chapter the young people’s 
society was said to be one of the practical answers 
of the church of to-day to the new demands of an 
increasingly complex civilization. Another and 
in some respects similar answer is the organization 
of young men for specific work on behalf of their 
fellows. These are called by various names, such 
as brotherhoods, leagues, clubs, unions, and the 
like, of which the first is chosen for the heading 
of this chapter as being most distinctive and at 
the same time best expressing the fundamental 
idea of all. There are four such organizations 
which have attained national proportions. These 
will be described in order of their establishment, 
and followed by brief mention of a few local and 
independent brotherhoods. 

A. THE BROTHERHOOD OF SAINT ANDREW 

I. History and organization. This is confined 
wholly to the members of the Protestant Epis¬ 
copal Church. It began in 1883 in Saint James’ 
Church, Chicago, by the agreement of twelve 
young men, members of a Bible class under the 
leadership of Mr. James L. Houghteling, to fol¬ 
low the example of the disciple Andrew in bring- 
113 


114 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


ing Simon to his new Master. There was no idea 
of anything beyond a local guild for the spiritual 
betterment of young men, but the news of its 
success spread to other churches and similar 
guilds were formed. 

In 1886 a general organization was established, 
known as the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew in the 
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. 
There has been a steady growth until there are 
now about nine thousand members of senior chap¬ 
ters, as the local bodies are called, besides six 
thousand juniors, boys from twelve to sixteen. 
The movement proved too valuable to be con¬ 
fined to this country, and it has spread to Canada, 
Scotland, England, the West Indies, South Amer¬ 
ica, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, 
and China. In several of these there is a national 
organization, the headquarters for the United 
States being at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Mr. 
Hubert Carleton as general secretary and editor 
of the monthly paper, Saint Andrew's Cross. 

2. Object. The object of the Brotherhood is 
thus stated in the constitution: “The sole object 
of the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew is the spread 
of Christ’s kingdom among men, especially young 
men, and to this end every man desiring to be¬ 
come a member thereof must pledge himself to 
obey the rules of the Brotherhood, so long as he 
shall be a member. These rules are two: the rule 
of prayer and the rule of service. The rule of 
prayer is to pray daily for the spread of Christ’s 



THE BROTHERHOOD 


”5 

kingdom among men, especially young men, and 
for God’s blessing upon the labors of the Brother¬ 
hood. The rule of service is to make at least one 
earnest effort each week to lead some man nearer 
to Christ through His church.” The purpose is 
thus seen to be distinctively spiritual, the hand¬ 
book saying in this respect: “It is understood 
that the chapters, as such, shall conduct their 
work on truly spiritual lines, and shall not under¬ 
take the management of entertainments, fairs, 
and similar functions.” The national secretary 
writes: “Its sole idea is that of personal service 
on behalf of others. The members do not work 
for the good of the society, nor to get men to 
join it or anything else, except in so far as it 
tends to make them working members of the 
church. We do not believe in social or socio¬ 
logical or charitable work unless the definite aim 
of bringing the men nearer to Christ is kept 
clearly before us. We say it is impossible for a 
man to be a real Christian unless he is trying to 
make it easier for other men who are not Christ¬ 
ians to become such, and for those who are Christ¬ 
ians to become better ones.” 

3. Membership basis. Although the movement 
has become wide-spread but little effort is made 
for members. To quote further from the secre¬ 
tary: “Our men join for what they can give and 
not for what they can get. Quality is always 
considered before quantity. That the men may 
fully understand the Brotherhood we require a 




Il6 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


probationary membership of at least three months. 
This fortunately cuts off many unsuitable appli¬ 
cants, who soon drop out after having had some 
difficult work suggested to them. It is a society 
of workers only.” On this point the words of the 
founder are explicit. “Every man is a pledged 
worker for the spread of the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ. He has not joined because it is the thing 
to do; he has not joined because of the wishes of 
his pastor; but he has gone into it with a consci¬ 
entious desire to spread the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ, and has pledged himself to work to that 
end.” 1 

There is a simple form of admission to member¬ 
ship, in which the candidate verbally pledges 
himself to observe the two rules, so far as able 
and so long as he remains a member. He re¬ 
ceives a cardboard folder of pocket size, contain¬ 
ing a certificate of membership, a summary of the 
objects of the order, the two rules, recommenda¬ 
tions, and brief prayers. There is also a special 
prayer, “the collect for Saint Andrew’s Day,” 
which all are recommended to use each noon as 
a prayer for the spread of Christ’s kingdom 
among men. 

Each chapter is wholly subordinate to the 
church in which it exists. It can not be estab¬ 
lished without the approval of the rector, whose 
written consent is prerequisite to the granting of 
a charter by the national council. If for any 

* Christianity Practically Applied , Vol. II, p. 3s. 





THE BROTHERHOOD 


ii7 

reason this approval be afterward withdrawn, the 
charter is annulled. The organization is pur¬ 
posely simple, in keeping with its objects. There 
are ordinarily but three officers, director, secre¬ 
tary, and treasurer, and these appoint any com¬ 
mittees that may be necessary. In cities where 
there are several chapters local assemblies are 
formed for closer cooperation and increased effi¬ 
ciency. 

The general oversight of chapters in different 
states is assigned to members of the national 
council. National conventions are held yearly, 
with an attendance as high as twelve hundred. 
A marked feature is the observance of seasons of 
devotion at the beginning, lasting sometimes a 
whole day. Several belated groups of delegates 
to a recent convention held such services while 
traveling by rail and steamer. 

4. Methods. While the distinctively spiritual 
purpose of the Brotherhood is kept constantly at 
the front, yet its efforts are by no means confined 
to what is commonly known as “personal work,” 
the direct endeavor to lead a soul to saving faith 
in Christ. Among the lines of work engaged in 
as more or less directly tributary to this end are 
the following: Bible study, often on a week-day 
evening; distribution of cards of invitation, in¬ 
cluding hotel guests; welcoming strangers at the 
church services; establishment of a club room, 
especially for homeless young men; the support 
of special services, as during Lent; conducting 




Il8 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


local missions in sections of the city or country 
destitute of church advantages; visitation of hos¬ 
pitals and prisons, with personal attention to 
inmates after leaving, and help where needed. 

This necessarily brief description of the Brother¬ 
hood of Saint Andrew, notable, in this day of 
religious organizations with multifarious ends, for 
its rigid insistence upon a distinctively spiritual 
purpose, may fittingly close with one of its 
beautiful prayers, in at least the Tatter part of 
which all who are concerned for the spiritual 
welfare of young men might well join. 

u FOR THE SPREAD OF CHRISTS KINGDOM AMONG 
YOUNG MEN 

“Almighty and eternal Father, without whom 
nothing is strong, nothing is holy, we beseech 
Thee to inspire and sustain the prayers and efforts 
of the members of our Brotherhood and to hallow 
their lives; and grant that young men everywhere 
may be brought into the kingdom of Thy Son, 
and may be led from strength to strength until 
they attain unto the fulness of eternal life, 
through the same, Thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, 
Amen.” 

B. THE BROTHERHOOD OF ANDREW AND PHILIP 

i. Founding and growth. This organization is 
similar in its primary purpose to the preceding, 
having been suggested by and largely modeled 
after it. In May, 1888, Rev. R. W. Miller, then 





THE BROTHERHOOD 


ng» 

associate pastor of the Second Reformed Church 
of Reading, Pennsylvania, organized fifteen young 
men of his congregation into a society, to which 
the above name was given. As in the former 
case, the nucleus of the new organization was a 
young men’s Bible class. It was not, however, 
intended that this Brotherhood should be con¬ 
fined to a particular denomination, and the idea 
was soon taken up in many other churches. In 
two years there were thirty-five chapters with over 
one thousand members and there has been a steady 
growth ever since, until the membership is about 
twenty-five thousand, distributed among churches 
of twenty-three denominaions. In five of these, 
Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian, 
and Reformed, the chapters have an executive 
council for the denomination and hold annual 
conventions. 

There is a federal council, composed of three 
delegates appointed by each executive council. 
Its president is Rev. R. W. Miller, Reading, 
Pennsylvania, and the general and field secretary, 
Rev. J. Garland Hamner, Jr., Newark, New 
Jersey. The federal council has supervision of 
the general work of the Brotherhood, issues all 
charters to local chapters, arranges for biennial 
conventions, and publishes a monthly magazine, 
The Brotherhood Star. The national work is sup¬ 
ported by voluntary offerings, there being no 
dues or assessments of any kind. 

The largest chapter is in the Bethany Presby- 





120 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


terian Church, Philadelphia. It has about a 
thousand members and occupies a fine building, 
the gift of the president, Mr. John Wanamaker. 
A Sunday morning prayer-meeting is held with 
an attendance of several hundred. 

2. Purpose and methods . The sole object is the 
spread of Christ’s kingdom among the youth 
and older men. For the promotion of this object 
each active member promises to observe two 
rules: “(i) The rule of prayer, to pray daily for 
the spread of Christ’s kingdom among men and 
for God’s blessing upon the labors of the Brother¬ 
hood; (2) the rule of service, to make an earnest 
effort each week to bring at least one man or 
boy within hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
as set forth in the services of the church, young peo¬ 
ple’s meetings, and young men’s Bible classes.” 
Herein the organization is almost identical with 
the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew, but its methods 
are more varied. While it lays emphasis upon 
the spiritual work first, ‘‘teaching the members 
that they must learn to recognize God’s voice in 
their own hearts and to obey it implicitly, and 
that they must strive to introduce other men to 
Him,” to quote a letter from the general secre¬ 
tary, there is also a recognition of other than 
distinctly spiritual means as legitimate and help¬ 
ful to the accomplishment of its purpose. What 
these means are will be indicated by a list of 
local committees suggested by the national organ¬ 
ization: (1) Lookout, to seek new members and 




THE BROTHERHOOD 


121 


reclaim the indifferent; (2) devotional; (3) social; 
(4) Bible class; (5) relief, for the help of mem¬ 
bers and others who may be sick or out of em¬ 
ployment; (6) rescue, to have charge of hospital, 
prison, mission and outdoor work; (7) social 
service, to interest members and others in civic 
duties and in moral and social reforms; (8) read¬ 
ing room; (9) advertising; (10) executive, for 
general oversight of the affairs of the chapter. 

3. Membership basis. In the matter of classes of 
membership each chapter makes its own rules, 
except that active members must be church 
members and agree to observe the rules of prayer 
and service. Some have only members of this 
class, while others add associate, any man of 
good moral character, and honorary, any per¬ 
son aiding or advancing the object of the 
Brotherhood. In place of these classes some 
chapters have three degrees. The first corre¬ 
sponds to associate membership and must be 
taken by all, while the second corresponds to 
active membership. In connection with each 
of these degrees there is a simple but impress¬ 
ive form of initiation, conducted as a religious 
service. Members of the third degree are known 
only by the pastor, to whom they have privately 
given their names as “ready to perform any 
reasonable specific work for a man that the pastor 
may desire.” 

The establishment of a chapter in any church is 
a simple matter. The federal constitution says: 




122 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


“Any organization of young men in any congre¬ 
gation or mission of any evangelical church, 
whose members so pledge themselves (to the 
observance of the rules before mentioned), is 
entitled, with the approval of the minister or 
officers in charge, to enrolment, and so to be¬ 
come a chapter, and as such to obtain represen¬ 
tation in the convention. There is also a Junior 
Brotherhood, composed of boys. 

4. Advantages. Some of the specific advantages 
of the Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip are thus 
stated by its founder: “A chapter engages first 
in work within the bounds of the congregation 
with which it is connected. It has its limits and 
can hope to cover its field and do its work fairly 
well. It engages in evangelistic work outside the 
parish, but always from the church as a center, 
and it brings its fruits home to the church. The 
Brotherhood plan brings the young men of the 
congregation under the guidance and instruction 
of their natural leaders, the pastor and church 
officers. This is an incalculable advantage. In 
addition it can be said that the Brotherhood 
work is, so to speak, the missing link between the 
Young Men’s Christian Association and the local 
congregation, in that it can bring the young men 
reached through the former into touch with the 
divinely instituted means of grace in the church.” 

In any church where there is no organized work 
especially for young men, the Brotherhood of 
Andrew and Philip is worthy of introduction. The 



THE BROTHERHOOD 


123 


organization is so simple and elastic as to admit 
of its adoption by any body of young men who 
earnestly desire to promote the kingdom of their 
Master among their fellows. Each chapter is 
wholly subordinate to the local church in which 
it exists and is entirely free from outside control. 
At the same time its affiliation with the chapters 
both of its own denomination and of twenty-three 
others will furnish a sense of comradeship and a 
breadth of vision that are scarcely possible to a 
purely local organization, and will prove of large 
value. Its appropriate motto is: “They that are 
wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; 
and they that turn many to righteousness as the 
stars for ever and ever.” (Daniel 12: 3.) 

C. THE BROTHERHOOD OF SAINT PAUL 

This is the third Protestant fraternity of young 
men in the United States in point of age, and is 
confined to the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

1. Object. “The purpose of this Brotherhood is 
to effect the mutual improvement and entertain¬ 
ment of its members by religious, social, physical, 
and literary culture, to promote the spirit and 
practice of Christian brotherhood, to build up the 
church with which we are connected, and espe¬ 
cially to extend Christ’^ cause in the world by 
winning our brothers to the Christian faith.” 

2. Principles . “We accept Christ as our great 
commander, example, and Saviour, and Saint Paul 
as the leader of our division of Christ’s army. 




124 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


They are our types of manly character. We 
declare loyalty to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, to its laws, its pastors, and its lay offi¬ 
ciary, and to the Scripture doctrines upon which 
it is founded.” 

3. Aims. “We will seek daily the noblest 
Christian manhood; devote our lives to the cause 
of Jesus on earth; be loyal to the church and keep 
her rules; know more of the Bible and be proud 
to carry and to use it; be educated churchmen, 
making good use of our church papers and pub¬ 
lications; esteem them who are over us in the 
church very highly in love for their work’s sake; 
be true brothers, seeking to protect each other’s 
reputation and to advance each other’s interests; 
be Christians everywhere and in all the relations 
of life, social, business, political, religious; take 
an all-round interest in every good work, and 
especially in missions, church building, educa¬ 
tion, and the care of veterans and the sick; pray 
daily, and labor to save lost men and to increase 
the numbers of them who shall come under the 
influence of our church.” 

4. Advantages. In addition to the general 
advantages of such organizations, the following 
specific points are cited in favor of the Brother¬ 
hood of Saint Paul: ‘‘It is really and not nom¬ 
inally fraternal; its fraternal forms and deeds 
attract and hold practical, sensible men; the 
pastor is chaplain and ranking officer and so 
always at the center of things; moral men who 




THE BROTHERHOOD 


125 


are interested in the church are received into the 
first degree of membership, and in most of the 
chapters have thus first become affiliated with 
Christian brothers and then with the church; no 
work is undertaken which conflicts with other 
church interests.” 

5. Growth. In its present form the Brother¬ 
hood dates from 1896 and has had a steady 
growth, the present membership being about 
twenty-five thousand, distributed throughout the 
country. It is not confined to young men, 
although they form a large proportion. There 
are both local and state brotherhoods and also 
a national organization with headquarters at 
Syracuse, New York. Mr. H. E. Dingley of 
Syracuse is president and Rev. A. W. Haynes, 
D.D., Binghamton, New York, is secretary. 

6. Juniors. There is a junior organization, 
already mentioned, known as the Knights of 
Saint Paul and composed of boys under fifteen. 
Each chapter is under the supervision of the 
pastor and the senior chapter. Its object is ‘‘to 
develop a manly Christian character.” Any boy 
who is approved by the pastor is eligible to 
membership. 

7. Local organizations. Besides the usual 
officers there are four committees with duties as 
follows: 

(1) Christian work: attendance as means of 
grace; men’s devotional services; personal work; 
invitations and welcoming; neighborhood meet- 




126 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


ings; religious census; Bible study club for 
men; Knights of Saint Paul; temperance; 
missions; Christian citizenship; personal purity; 
all benevolent and moral causes; training 
classes in Christian service; circulation of 
religious papers and books. (2) Social: finding 
and welcoming strangers; debates and dis¬ 
cussions of practical, religious and literary 
character; lectures and entertainments; out¬ 
ings and receptions; promotion of brotherly 
spirit in the church. (3) Membership: securing 
new members; visitation of the sick, and help if 
needed; care of regalia and other property of the 
chapter; inspection and oversight of membership 
roll; initiations. (4) Executive: general over¬ 
sight of all committees and care of financial 
and all matters not otherwise provided for. 

Every session is opened and closed in accord¬ 
ance with a simple ritual, designed to remind 
members of the object, principles, and aims of 
the order, as given in the opening of this section. 

There is a Mutual Benefit Branch which maybe 
established at each chapter’s pleasure, “to pro¬ 
vide for mutual helpfulness in sickness and need, 
and to assist in paying burial expenses.” 

8. Degrees . The most marked feature of the 
Brotherhood of Saint Paul, differentiating it from 
the two preceding, is the existence of three 
degrees or orders. The first is the Order of Jeru¬ 
salem, “comprising all new members and all 
who, though not in full membership in the 




THE BROTHERHOOD 


127 


Methodist Episcopal Church, will agree to en¬ 
deavor to live a moral life.” The Order of 
Damascus comprises “all who, as travelers in the 
way of life, have met Christ, and, having accepted 
His love and undertaken His service,” have 
come into full church membership. Membership 
in the Order of Rome is confined to those who 
have been members of the second order for two 
years. Initiation in each case is conducted with 
elaborate ceremonies, abounding in Scripture 
and hymns, and is made a deeply religious 
service. 

9. Results. An organization is best judged by 
what it accomplishes, and brief statements of 
work done by a few chapters are here given. 
“Chartered a car and held gospel meetings in a 
neighboring city; conducted Sunday evening 
prayer service for six months; 9:30 a. m. devotional 
meeting with attendance of thirty men; conver¬ 
sions of men of the chapter; induced six hun¬ 
dred men at one service to attend church; 
Tuesday evening Bible studies; platform and 
personal work committees during revival ser¬ 
vices; interest created in regular Sunday services; 
young men in boarding houses sought out and 
interested; deaconess supported in work among 
sick and poor; Knights of Saint Paul established; 
orphan and preacher in India supported; good 
literature table maintained in church vestry; 
country Sunday-school started; rid the town of 
saloons; stopped Sunday racing; gymnasium and 





128 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


reading-room; lecture course and debates; relief 
of the sick and destitute.” 

This large and varied activity shows practical 
belief in one of the official statements: “There 
is no loving helpful office of man to man which 
may not with propriety be performed under the 
sanction and in the power of the church of 
Christ.” 


D. THE GIDEONS 

I. History. A score of years ago almost the 
last place one would look to find active Christians 
would have been among traveling salesmen, 
commonly known as “drummers.” Almost con¬ 
stantly on the move and so bound very lightly 
by ordinary ties of social restraint, away from 
home nearly all the time and so but little bound 
by family ties, young men of this class are 
unusually exposed to temptations of every sort, 
especially those which appeal to their lower 
nature. But to-day the convivial, carousing type 
has largely disappeared, thanks to the operation 
of two forces. One of these is negative, 
expressed by the familiar evolutionary law 
of the survival of the fittest. Salesmen 
of this sort have simply gone down in 
competition with men of sound bodies, clear 
minds, and honest hearts, who have proved to 
be their superiors in every way. The other 
force is positive and is none other than the 
gospel of Jesus Christ which here, as every- 




THE B5LOTHTHHOOD 


1-9 


where, has wrought the elevation of manhood 
in all its departments, physical, —fill, and stxr- 
imaL 

This positive infinence has in the past few 
years been furthered in a remarkable degree by 
an organization of Christian traveling men known 
as the Gideons. Its beginning is traced id so 
simple and apparently circumstantial a thing as 
the enforced rooming together one night in a 
hotel in Boscobel, Wisconsin, of two salesmen, 
hitherto unacquainted. Althoogh representing 
different nuns they proved to be members of the 
same kingdom, and upon unexpectedly meeting 
soon after conceived the idea of banding together 
Christian traveling men of varices occupations. 
With characteristic energy the idea was embodied 
in the immediate sending out of letters to several 
such, with the result that on July I, iSoa at 
Janesville. Wisconsin, the society of the Gideons 
was organized, with three charter members. 
Nothing daunted, they sent out more letters, and 
on September first more men were present and 
the organization was completed. 

The need of some means for recognizing fellow 
members was met by the adoption of a buttonhole 
badge, the design representing the pitcher and 
torch carried by the soldiers of Gideon in their 
successful night attach on the Midianitesc The 
new order spread rapidly and an official publica¬ 
tion was established, known as 7V Giirjm* pub¬ 
lished five times a year at Madison, Wisconsin. 






130 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


Annual conventions are held, which are marked 
by religious zeal and spiritual power. 

2. Object and methods. The purpose of the organ¬ 
ization is thus stated: “The object of the Gideons 
shall be to recognize the Christian traveling men 
of the world with cordial fellowship; to encourage 
each other in the Master’s work; to improve every 
opportunity for the betterment of the lives of our 
fellow travelers, business men, and others with 
whom we may come in contact; scattering seeds 
all along the pathway for Christ. An active mem¬ 
ber shall be any commercial traveling man of 
recognized church membership of any denomina¬ 
tion, who believes in Jesus Christ as his only 
Saviour.” Membership is not limited to sales¬ 
men but includes also buyers, collectors, auditors, 
claim and advertising agents, freight and passen¬ 
ger agents, insurance agents and adjusters, whose 
business keeps them on the road. Its members 
being constantly so scattered, the organization is 
quite simple. Those whose homes are in or near 
anyone place constitute a camp, and all in a state 
form a state camp. The national organization 
alone, through its officers, receives members. The 
secretary is Mr. J. H. Nicholson, Janesville, Wis¬ 
consin. The present membership is over three 
thousand men and growing rapidly. All wives of 
members are considered as forming an auxiliary 
society, though there is no formal organization. 

As with the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew, the 
Gideons have a definite spiritual purpose and use 



THE BROTHERHOOD 


131 

only distinctively spiritual means for its accom¬ 
plishment. To quote from an official pamphlet: 
“Socials they have in private homes, but unlike 
most gatherings of the name. There is no clap¬ 
trap to draw people, no prize or premium, no trap 
to draw the unconverted into a net and induce 
him to love God’s people because he sees how 
near the world one may live and yet be called a 
Christian.” 

The Chicago camp holds a camp-fire every 
Saturday noon in Willard Hall and also conducts 
evangelistic meetings to help pastors. Groups of 
men visit churches on Sunday and prayer-meeting 
evenings, and also occasionally for a week or 
more. This feature of the work has spread to other 
states and has proved a source of large blessing 
to many churches. “No charge is made and no 
collection taken for this work, which is absolutely 
free. Pastors are being encouraged, churches 
revived, and many souls saved under the Holy 
Spirit by means of these men and their methods.” 

The rise and growth of the Gideons among a 
class of men commonly supposed to be largely 
outside of Christian influence, is a striking answer 
to those who affirm that Christianity is declining 
and that the church is losing its power over the 
hearts of men. 

E. YOUNG MEN’S PRESBYTERIAN UNION OF CHICAGO 

This organization was formed in May, 1902, by 
the union of thirty-two young men’s Bible classes. 




132 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


clubs, and similar societies in the Presbyterian 
churches of Chicago and vicinity. Its unique¬ 
ness and large success justify its presentation 
here. 

1. Object. “The object shall be to establish 
fraternal relations between the members of the 
young men’s Bible classes, clubs and kindred 
organizations in the various Presbyterian churches 
of Chicago and vicinity; to broaden the know¬ 
ledge and efforts of young men along the line of 
intelligent Christian citizenship; to enlarge and 
improve the work of existing organizations and 
assist in the establishment of new ones; and to 
do everything possible to strengthen fellow¬ 
ship and friendship among Presbyterian young 
men. ” 

2. Organization. The control of the Union is 
vested in a board of delegates, composed of one 
from each organization, and six pastors, two from 
each of the three divisions of the city. This 
body meets quarterly. There is an executive com¬ 
mittee composed of the officers, three pastors, and 
three laymen. 

3. Lines of work. In addition to the usual offi¬ 
cers, there are six vice-presidents, in charge of 
the following departments: 

(1) Finance: to provide the necessary means 
for current expenses. All money is secured by 
private subscription, there being no assessments 
or collections. (2) Citizenship: to educate Chris¬ 
tian young men as to their civic duties, and to 




THE BROTHERHOOD 


133 


“impress upon them that loyalty to God and right¬ 
eousness are compatible with success and useful¬ 
ness in politics.” (3) Methods and Instruction: 
“concerning itself with systematic investigation 
of the best methods that can be devised whereby 
young men’s Bible classes may attract men to 
Bible study, may win them for Christ, and may 
instruct and exercise them in an intelligent and 
sincere Christianity.” (4) Extension of Work: 
to secure the establishment of special work for 
young men where there is none, and to strengthen 
existing organizations. (5) Missionary Interests: 
for the special promotion of personal work in 
bringing men to Christ and reclaiming the indiffer¬ 
ent. During the past winter a vigorous campaign 
was conducted, in the course of which nearly five 
thousand letters and ten thousand circulars were 
sent out, including several hundred copies of Dr. 
Trumbull’s Individual Work for Individuals. (6) 
Social Affairs: to promote the social life of each 
organization and also of the Union as a whole, 
the latter by occasional banquets with addresses 
by prominent men. 

4. Results. These are thus summed up in a let¬ 
ter from the president, Mr. Andrew Stevenson, 
615 Monadnock Building: “The growth of the 
organizations comprising the Young Men’s Pres¬ 
byterian Union of Chicago during the first year 
of the united effort to reach and hold young 
men has been remarkable. On May 20, 1902, when 
the Union was formed, there were thirty-two 




134 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


young men’s Bible classes, clubs and similar 
organizations in the Presbyterian churches of 
Chicago and vicinity. The total enrolment was 
1,942, 1,174 being classed as active men, who 
could be absolutely depended upon in our work. 
On May 19, 1903, there were sixty-one organ¬ 
izations, with an enrolment of 3,172 men, about 
2,000 of whom were counted as active. It is 
almost impossible to estimate the value of the 
movement so early in its life. Hundreds of men 
who were at one time identified with or inter¬ 
ested in our Presbyterian churches, but who have 
in later years been indifferent, have returned to 
the active ranks. Older men have been stirred 
to their Christian duties and privileges as never 
before. And we are just experiencing the begin¬ 
ning of the great forward movement throughout 
the church. 

“I count it the greatest opportunity of my life 
to be connected with a movement which has 
been used to win men for Christ as has this, and it 
is my earnest hope that it will be duplicated in 
some way or another in every leading denomina¬ 
tion in the city very soon. The more Christian 
young men that are banded together to promote 
the interests of the kingdom, the easier the 
results come.” 

5. Publication. A monthly magazine of sixteen 
pages keeps the members informed of the progress 
of the work, and is largely instrumental in its 
furtherance. 




THE BROTHERHOOD 


135 


F. THE SUNDAY EVENING CLUB 

In addition to the foregoing there are a large 
number of local organizations, resembling them 
in some one or more respects but having an 
independent existence. 

One of the most common of these is the Sun¬ 
day Evening Club, an organization composed 
largely but not wholly of young men, having 
for its special object the building up of attendance 
at the Sunday evening service. This is done by 
rendering all possible assistance to the pastor, 
as by invitations, advertising, and kindred 
efforts, the sermon being usually somewhat short¬ 
ened in order to allow for special musical features 
provided by the club. A list of the committees 
of the club of the Second Presbyterian Church 
of Chicago will give some idea of the work not 
only of this one in particular but of all in gen¬ 
eral: worship, for consultation with the pastor as 
to sermon topics and the order of service; music; 
ushers; printing, to advertise the service by cards 
and newspaper notices, and provide a printed 
order of worship for each service; invitation, to 
extend special invitations to strangers and those 
who attend no church, and to welcome all such; 
finance; membership; social, and Bible class. 
This club’s efforts are not confined to the even¬ 
ing service, but include social gatherings, lectures, 
entertainments, and a Sunday Bible class. The 
printed bulletin announces that it welcomes to 
its membership any young man, whether a church 





136 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


member or not, who is interested in its work. 
“The broad idea of the Sunday Evening Club,” 
writes a successful pastor, “is to secure the active 
cooperation of the men who are not as yet 
thoroughly identified with the church as commu¬ 
nicants, as well as those who are.” 

The lines of work suggested by the names of 
committees given above may be increased or 
diminished at the pleasure of each club. One 
has also committees for church decoration, 
religious census of the community, and the care 
of coats and hats in the vestibule. A full pre¬ 
sentation of the subject, such as limited space 
here does not allow, may be found in Modern 
Methods in Church Work, Chapter IX., and also 
in a pamphlet entitled The Fishiri Jimmy Club. 

G. PLEASANT SUNDAY AFTERNOONS 

In Chapter XII of the same book will be found 
a description of the “Pleasant Sunday After¬ 
noon,” which offers a large opportunity for 
helping young men in places where there is no 
Young Men’s Christian Association. The move¬ 
ment originated in England for the specific 
purpose of reaching working men and has had 
some, though by no means universal, success in 
this country. 

The character of the meeting is indicated by its 
name. “It is simply a gospel service, with high 
class instrumental and chorus music, solo singing 
and a bright brotherly talk on things spiritual. 




THE BROTHERHOOD 


137 


Representatives of the various professions, 
business men, and other available laymen are 
drawn on for this service.” The fraternal feature 
is furnished by organizing along lines suggested 
for general brotherhood work. 


H. OTHER ORGANIZATIONS 

A brief list of other and successful independent 
organizations follows, with the mention of only 
such features, if any, as have not already been 
given in this chapter. They are in each case com¬ 
posed largely or wholly of young men. 

Men’s Union, Dudley Street Baptist Church, 
Boston, Massachusetts. 

Young Men’s Christian Union, Boston. This is 
under Unitarian auspices, has a building of its 
own, and carries on a large work, similar in 
some respects to the Young Men’s Christian 
Association. 

Walter Lowrie Club, Newport, Rhode Island, 
Rev. Richard Arnold Greene, leader. Composed 
of young men of several churches; motto: “His 
servants shall serve Him”; literature committee 
to distribute books, magazines, etc., wherever 
needed and acceptable; religious meetings held 
Sunday afternoon. 

Men’s Guild, Central Congregational Church, 
Brooklyn, New York. Promotes mission work 
among negroes and poor whites in the South; 
supplies tools for manual training school. 



138 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


Men’s League, Broadway Tabernacle Church, 
New York City. 

Men’s Club, Judson Memorial Baptist Church, 
New York City. Sunday afternoon tea and 
monthly public meeting with addresses by eminent 
men on civic questions. 

Men’s Club, First Congregational Church, Jer¬ 
sey City, New Jersey. Has a regular system of 
sick, accident and death benefits; medical exami¬ 
nation of candidates; club rooms with gymna¬ 
sium, bowling alley, and pool tables; is incorpo¬ 
rated under the state laws. 

Young Men’s Club, Saint Matthew’s Lutheran 
Church, Philadelphia. “For the enriching and 
widening of the intellectual, social, and religious 
life of young men.” 

Men’s Club, Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, 
Cleveland, Ohio. Traveling men especially invi¬ 
ted to attend when in the city, and traveling men’s 
membership sustained. Has a mailing list of about 
one thousand men, to whom invitations and an¬ 
nouncements of the various meetings are sent. A 
record of all such is kept, and after six invitations 
with no response a name is removed if personal 
effort fails. 

Young Men’s Fraternity, Ashland Avenue 
Baptist Church, Toledo, Ohio. 

Young Men’s Social Union, First Baptist 
Church, Lansing, Michigan. Cooperation with 
Law and Order League of the city. 




THE BROTHERHOOD 


139 


Men’s Club, Markham Memorial Presbyterian 
Church, St. Louis, Missouri. 

The Brotherhood, First Baptist Church, Elgin, 
Illinois. 

Young Men’s Christian Brotherhood, Methodist 
Episcopal Church, Belvidere, Illinois. Holds 
revival services in country school houses. 

Young Men’s Club, First Baptist Church, St. 
Paul, Minnesota. Reading room open every night; 
free writing materials. 

Gideon’s Band, First Baptist Church, Shenan¬ 
doah, Iowa. 

Young Men’s Christian League, Memorial Bap¬ 
tist Church, Los Angeles, California. 

The chief purpose of all the organizations men¬ 
tioned in this chapter is the performance of some 
definitely spiritual service for the betterment of 
young men. There is always a temptation to 
allow secondary means, such as social, literary, 
athletic, and the like, to attain undue prominence 
and even usurp the place of the real end, becom¬ 
ing ends in themselves. In so far as this is done 
it is sure to work harm, and if persisted in will 
lead to the ultimate downfall of the society. The 
prime justification of a Brotherhood lies in the 
spiritual service that it renders to young men. 
If it fails in this it has no sufficient reason for 
existence. But by keeping this end steadily in 
view and with strict subordination of all other 
ends, no matter how worthy in themselves, it may 
become a mighty power for good in its church 
and community. 






CHAPTER VII 


THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH 
A. NEED AND DEFINITION 

The successful angler has more than one sort of 
tackle, and he who would be a successful fisher of 
men must be equally wise. Valuable as are the 
means described in the preceding chapters, suc¬ 
cessful as they are in reaching many young men 
and bringing them into church work and member¬ 
ship, there are yet very many whom they do not 
reach. A wise worker has said that the real test 
of any method is not merely the number that it 
succeeds in helping, but also the number that it 
fails to help, some of whom, indeed, may be even 
alienated by it. A highly successful pastor has 
said that “nowadays you can’t swing religion into 
a young man’s consciousness prayer-meeting end 
to,” and it is true of any form of work that is 
distinctively and openly religious. 

Judged from the standpoint of reaching the 
largest possible number of young men, all of the 
methods hitherto described are in some measure 
lacking. It is of course easy to reply that mere 
desire for numbers is an unworthy motive, and 
to point to the example of the founder of 
Christianity, who selected a little company of 
140 


THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH 141 

men and trained them, even at times withdraw¬ 
ing from the crowd. But He also reached vast 
multitudes of people, and His greatest apostle 
made it the object of his earnest endeavor “by 
all means to save some,” not even hesitating, as 
he wrote to the Corinthians, to “take you with 
guile.” It is not only true that “he that is wise 
winneth souls,” but he must be wise, very wise, 
or he will not succeed. And in the same ancient 
book of practical wisdom it is said, “Surely the 
net is spread in vain in the sight of any bird.” 

Practical recognition of the force of the old 
maxim, as well as of the wisdom of Paul’s saying, 
has found expression during recent years in the 
development of what, for want of a better term, 
is called the institutional church. The expression 
is so variously interpreted and made to cover so 
many different forms of activity that it will be 
helpful to bear in mind a definition given by Rev. 
Edward Judson, D.D., of New York, who has 
had long experience in such work. “An insti¬ 
tutional church is an organized body of Christian 
believers who, finding themselves in a hard and 
uncongenial social environment, supplement the 
ordinary methods of the gospel—such as preach¬ 
ing, prayer-meetings, Sunday-school, and pastoral 
visitation—by a system of organized kindness, a 
congeries of institutions which, by touching peo¬ 
ple on physical, social, and intellectual sides, 
will conciliate them and draw them within reach 
of the gospel. The local church under the pres- 



142 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


sure of adverse environment tends to institution¬ 
alism.” 1 

What has this wider circle of church activity to 
offer to young men? What means does it employ, 
other than those already presented and which 
of course it uses, that will tend either directly 
or indirectly to promote their spiritual better¬ 
ment? Directly, little or nothing. It has its 
very justification in the fact that the ordinary 
means of direct effort have proved insufficient, 
and these it proposes to supplement by indirect 
effort of various sorts. Some of the methods 
already suggested in connection with Bible classes 
and Brotherhoods are distinctly institutional, 
“touching young men on physical, social, and in¬ 
tellectual sides, and thereby conciliating them 
and drawing them within reach of the gospel.” 
The question as to what institutional churches 
have to offer young men can best be answered by 
indicating what some of them do offer and some 
of the results attained. 

B. METHODS AND RESULTS 

i. There is probably none more thoroughly 
organized and highly successful in its ministering 
to the many needs of young men than Saint 
George’s Episcopal Church in New York City, of 
which Rev. W. S. Rainsford, D. D., has been 
the rector for over twenty years. The situation at 
the beginning of his ministry is thus described: 


1 The Institutional Church , p. 30. 





THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH 


143 


“In 1883 there was only a handful of people 
in attendance. The Sunday-school had dwindled 
to two or three hundred and, so far as I was able 
to discover, none of the working people of the 
neighborhood ever stepped across the threshold of 
the church. The district (the lower end of the 
East Side) had been a fashionable residence sec¬ 
tion, but these residences were being rapidly 
changed into boarding houses, and three or four 
families therefore entered where one went away. 
Still, no church sought them, no church adapted 
its services to their special needs, and conse¬ 
quently very few of them were churchgoers.” 1 

By dint of heroic effort, supplemented by a few 
paid workers and a large body of volunteers, 
and the wise use of manifold means to minister 
to the physical, intellectual, and social natures of 
these hitherto untouched masses of people, as 
avenues of approach to their spiritual natures, 
the condition then existing has been wonder¬ 
fully transformed. A membership of over five 
hundred has grown to over five thousand, with 
three thousand more identified with the church 
but not yet communicants. All sittings were 
made free and the large increase in offerings has 
come mainly from people in poor and very 
moderate circumstances. 

The Men’s Club, largely composed of young 
men, has rooms and a gymnasium in the parish 
house. Ample opportunities are provided for 

1 St. George's Year-book, 1902, p. 10. 





144 THE church and young men 


reading and recreation, the games including bil¬ 
liards, chess, etc. Lectures and social gatherings 
are frequent. The rooms are open during the 
week from eight o’clock in the morning to eleven 
at night, and on Sunday from one to eleven. 
The military spirit, that seems native to every 
healthy young American, finds expression in the 
Battalion Club, with weekly drills and a summer 
camp. The Dramatic and Literary Society enlists 
the activities of many. A thoroughly equipped 
trade school under competent instructors has 
three hundred attendants. A chapter of the 
Brotherhood of Saint Andrew renders valuable 
service in distinctly spiritual lines. The Sunday- 
school, with an enrolment of over two thousand, 
has nearly five hundred young men fifteen years 
old and over. A regular system of progressive 
study with graded courses, examinations, and 
promotions contributes much to this unusual but 
fortunate state of affairs. 

Dr. Rainsford tersely sums up the advantages of 
institutional methods by saying that they “bring 
the fish into the church pond,” and the steady 
stream of accessions to this church from among 
those thus brought under the influence of the 
gospel seems amply to warrant their employ¬ 
ment. 

2. Another great church in the metropolis work¬ 
ing along similar lines and uplifting and enriching 
the whole lives of many hundreds of young men 
is Saint Bartholomew’s Episcopal, Rev. David H. 




THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH 


145 


Greer, D.D., rector. Its men’s club has a lim¬ 
ited membership of six hundred, mostly from 
twenty to thirty years of age, and the boy’s club 
enrolls seven hundred. There is hardly any form 
of assistance that is not given in some way, 
directly or indirectly, to its great constituency. 
In addition to those presented in the preceding 
section may be mentioned a roof garden on the 
parish house; a hospital, with nearly eight thou¬ 
sand cases a year; an employment bureau, con¬ 
sidering upwards of ten thousand applications for 
work; a loan association, lending nearly ninety 
thousand dollars to nine hundred persons; a fresh 
air fund, providing four thousand persons with 
seaside outings of from a day to a week. Services 
are conducted in English, German, Swedish, Turk¬ 
ish, Syriac, Armenian, Persian, and Chinese. 

The controlling purpose in these manifold min¬ 
istries is thus well expressed: “The ensuing year 
compels an effort for the creation in our clubs of 
a yet more robust and refined manhood, of a 
womanliness stronger and sweeter, and of a boy¬ 
hood which is more serious and manly. We can 
not be satisfied until the varied activities of the 
parish house have created lives like unto His, in 
whose name all our work is done.” 1 

3. Another church which is the center of mani¬ 
fold ministries to the unchurched multitudes of 
the metropolis is the Judson Memorial Baptist, 
Rev. Edward Judson, D.D., pastor. It has at its 


* St. Bartholomew's Year-book , 1902, p. 50. 





146 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


command neither the workers nor the means of 
the two preceding, but is doing, proportionately, 
a no less effective work. Relatively greater atten¬ 
tion is given to distinctively spiritual activities, 
there being an evangelistic service every night 
in the week in addition to various classes and 
clubs. A unique feature is a large building imme¬ 
diately adjoining the house of worship in which 
there are many rooms rented to young men, thus 
providing comfortable and safe quarters for them 
and also a modest revenue for church support. 

Dr. Judson’s words, born of long experience (he 
has been on this field over twenty years), are 
worth quoting: “It would be well if the young 
men of each church were organized into a society 
—a kind of local Young Men’s Christian Associa¬ 
tion. In this way the spirit and method of that 
great organization would be widely diffused and 
applied at a myriad different points. When Satan 
proposes to debauch a city full of people he does 
not build a grand central saloon at one conspicu¬ 
ous point and then establish three or four addi¬ 
tional branches. He just honey-combs the city, 
putting a cheerful saloon on almost every corner. 
Now the church edifices are pretty evenly distrib¬ 
uted throughout the city, and if each one of 
them should become a center of light and cheer 
for the young men in its immediate neighborhood 
the problem of enlightening the city would be 
solved. 

“Let the young men’s headquarters consist, if 




THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH 


147 


possible, of a sitting-room, a library and reading- 
room, and a gymnasium. Let the sitting-room 
have a coffee urn in the corner, a fire-place, easy 
chairs, tables, and a variety of innocent games. 
If a young man, living for instance in a hall bed¬ 
room and a stranger in the city, is at a loss how 
to spend the evening socially, he has a place 
where he can meet other young men and enjoy 
such recreation as he needs after the day’s work 
is done. If he wants to study or read he has a 
quiet, comfortable place where he can get good 
books, as well as the periodicals of the day. If, 
after hours of sedentary occupation, he needs 
to stretch his muscles, he can take instruction in 
gymnastics under a teacher who understands the 
science of body-building. In this way he is 
gently and unconsciously lured within the influ¬ 
ence of the church. What we need is a kind of 
a half-way house on the road leading from the 
saloon to the prayer-meeting. Nowadays you 
can not swing religion into a young man’s con¬ 
sciousness prayer-meeting end to. A young man 
in a great city finds himself peculiarly solitary, 
and it is so much easier to form bad companion¬ 
ships than good! Each church has a great work 
to do in the line of throwing around strangers 
allurements of friendliness.” 1 

4. These are but three of a large and growing 
number of churches that in many cities are sup¬ 
plementing their usual activities to a greater or 


1 The Institutional Church , pp. 180,181. 





148 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


less extent by these manifold ministries to other 
than purely spiritual needs. The extent to which 
they “bring the fish into the church pond” is well 
illustrated by the church affiliations of the Men’s 
Club of Christ Church, Episcopal, in Cincinnati. 
The total membership is 429, distributed as 
follows: Episcopalian, 113; Roman Catholic, 52; 
Presbyterian, 35; Baptist, 15; Methodist, 15; 
Congregational, 8; Lutheran, 8; German Protes¬ 
tant, 3; Disciple, 3; Quaker, 1; members of some 
church but not stated, 20; members of no church, 
156. These figures indicate a real desire for such 
advantages, and it is significant that those who 
are members of other churches, and also those who 
are members of no church, in each case outnum¬ 
ber the members of the church providing them. 

C. REQUISITES AND STANDARDS OF SUCCESS 

Here is a great field of opportunity for most 
churches. Not for all, as there are some whose 
situation, as for example in comfortable residence 
districts or near a Young Men’s Christian 
Association building, is such that these additional 
features are either little needed or already pro¬ 
vided. But the great majority of churches in all 
our towns and cities are not so situated. Multi¬ 
tudes of young men, especially those who live in 
boarding houses, whose nature craves companion¬ 
ship and sociability, have practically no proper 
means of satisfying those healthful desires. In 
search of evening recreation they pass the closed 




THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH 


149 


doors of darkened church buildings and enter, 
partly through choice to be sure, but in no small 
degree through practical necessity, the open doors 
of brilliantly lighted places of sin. “But it is the 
business of the church to preach the gospel,” says 
the chronic objector to anything that the fathers 
did not do. Assuredly, but that gospel, which 
to-day as much as ever is the sovereign remedy 
for all human woe, is not to be preached to a 
“dead wood-yard of empty pews,” such as most 
ministers address twice every Sunday. Rather is 
it to be preached to living men, and whatever in 
the way of institutional means that in itself is 
proper will help to bring them within sound of 
the gospel is not only legitimate but necessary. 
Changed and rapidly changing conditions of life, 
especially in cities and towns but also to no small 
extent in country districts as well, make it imper¬ 
ative that the church which wants to be instru¬ 
mental in bringing young men into the kingdom 
of God shall also change, notits essential message 
—provided only it be Christ’s message, but the 
methods by which it seeks to bring them within 
the hearing of that message. 

This does not for a moment mean that every 
church must straightway inaugurate the exten¬ 
sive plans of, for example, Saint George’s Church. 
Even if it were possible it would in all probability 
result in failure. The rector said to the writer: 
“Men come and ask for the privilege of copying 
the plans of our parish house: they might as well 




150 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


ask for a suit of my old clothes.” And then he 
went on to indicate how every department of 
the great work carried on there was the outgrowth 
of years of careful study of local conditions and 
many experiments. While the one purpose is 
everywhere the same, to win the confidence and 
friendship of those now alienated, and while in 
a broadly general way the needs are similar, yet 
in no two cities and in no two places in the same 
city are the local conditions exactly alike. A 
check for a thousand dollars or a hundred thou¬ 
sand dollars is neither essential to the beginning 
nor will it ensure the success of institutional work 
on behalf of young men. There must also be, 
first, last, and all the time, a thorough study of 
a constantly changing situation, and a constant 
adaptation of methods to its ever new demands. 

The term institutional is confessedly unfortunate 
because it savors of mechanism. Dr. Strong’s 
words express what is all too true: “The average 
Christian to-day is hiring his religious work done 
by proxy—by societies, institutions, the minister, 
the city missionary. He is so very busy that he 
would rather give his money than his time. His 
interest in his fellow men, therefore, is expressed 
through various organizations which make a bus¬ 
iness of philanthropy. Thus our Christian work 
has become largely institutional rather than per¬ 
sonal, and, therefore, largely mechanical instead 
of vital.” 1 


1 The New Era , p. 2x8. 





THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH 151 

This danger of mere mechanical action con¬ 
fronts every church that wishes to do this wider 
work, which for lack of better term is called 
institutional. An open building with reading and 
social rooms, gymnasium, and every possible 
means of ministering to these other than strictly 
religious needs, will avail but little unless there be 
an abundance of warm-hearted fellowship. And 
this must be thoroughly genuine, for no one will 
detect sham cordiality more quickly and shun it 
more surely than the young men upon whom it is 
patronizingly lavished. Without genuine, manly 
sympathy (and sympathy seldom means tears) 
with the hopes and aspirations as well as with the 
conflicts and temptations of young men, such as is 
born only of a real heart love for them, the most 
magnificent equipment will be a dismal failure; 
with it, the most meager will have good suc¬ 
cess. 

What is the measure of the success of institu¬ 
tional work on behalf of young men? Is it the 
number who are strengthened in body by its gym¬ 
nasium, or led into a richer life mentally by its 
lectures and classes, or helped to a larger life of 
social relationships and civic consciousness by its 
clubs and debating societies? In part, yes. These 
and the various other results of a not strictly relig¬ 
ious sort are worth attaining in and of them¬ 
selves. Whatever helps a young man physically, 
mentally, or socially is a good thing, and results 
along these lines properly have some place in 




152 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


estimating the success of institutional church 
methods. 

Moreover this widening of the ministries of 
the church is but following in the footsteps of the 
founder of Christianity. “It aims, as Christ’s 
body, to furnish the material environment through 
which His spirit can be practically expressed to 
the age in which it exists. It ‘seeks to become 
the center and source of all beneficent and philan¬ 
thropic effort, and to take part in every move¬ 
ment which has for its end the alleviation of all 
human suffering, the elevation of man, and the 
betterment of the world.’ This is simply follow¬ 
ing the example of Him who came not to be 
ministered unto but to minister; who went about 
doing good, healing the sick, comforting the 
afflicted, feeding the hungry, and sitting with sin¬ 
ners that He might show them the way of life.’ 1 
All these results, good and worthy in themselves, 
do, therefore, have a place in estimating the value 
of institutional church work. 

But they do not have first place. This must be 
constantly remembered. That this is clearly in 
the minds of the leaders in this movement of 
church extension is apparent from the words of 
Rev. C. L. Thompson, D.D., president of the 
Open and Institutional Church League. Speaking 
of the institutional church he says: “It believes 
that there is no other name but the name of 
Christ whereby men must be saved. It believes 


1 Modern Methods in Church Work, p. 7. 






THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH 


153 


that it will profit us nothing to gain the world 
and lose our souls, or life. It holds firmly to the 
supremacy of eternal life. Its ultimate aim is 
to bring men to the knowledge, faith, and ser¬ 
vice of the Redeemer. It would count church 
work a failure that did not result in lives re¬ 
newed by the power of the Holy Ghost. More 
than this, it is willing to have its work tested and 
judged by its fealty to and its success in the 
supreme work of bringing men to Christ.” 1 

Although institutional methods have, in the 
foregoing discussion, been considered only as 
means for “gently luring young men within the 
influence of the church,” and they prove of large 
value as such, this is by no means their sole 
purpose or result. They also afford powerful 
means of keeping them in the church, by furnish¬ 
ing definite avenues through which the new spirit¬ 
ual life may find practical expression and so be 
strengthened. As clearly indicated in the pre¬ 
ceding pages, one of the chief reasons why the 
church fails to hold young men after it gets them, 
lies in its failure to provide forms of practical 
activity worthy of their best endeavor. In sup¬ 
plying this real need such methods have high 
value. The parable of Jesus, recorded in Matthew 
12: 43-45, is of great significance in this connec¬ 
tion. 

Judged by this double test of both reaching and 
holding them, institutional church work on behalf 


1 Modern Methods in Church Work, p. 5 . 





154 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


of young men, if properly conducted—and that 
involves always a constant recognition of its 
ultimate purpose as just stated; the wise use of 
all means, both primary and secondary, which will 
contribute to its accomplishment; and such flex¬ 
ibility of methods as a constant study of chang¬ 
ing conditions shall find necessary—not only may 
prove but in many churches is proving a most 
valuable ally of the more distinctly religious 
work in effecting their spiritual betterment. 




CHAPTER VIII 

THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 

Any survey of modern agencies for the spirit¬ 
ual betterment of young men would be deficient 
in the extreme if it failed to take account of 
this great work. The words of Dr. Charles Cuth- 
bert Hall, president of Union Theological Sem¬ 
inary, New York, are well deserved. “If I were 
asked to name the agency that, within the last 
few years has been most helpful to the church 
of Christ, and most successful in winning men to 
the Christian life, without hesitation I would name 
the Young Men’s Christian Association. By its 
able system of Bible study, by the virile, hopeful, 
winsome tone of its meetings for men, by the 
wisdom of its methods of personal work, and by 
its cosmopolitan brotherliness, it has, in my judg¬ 
ment, reached the highest level of efficiency 
attained by the moral and spiritual forces of our 
time .” 1 

A brief resume of the history of the movement 
will first be given in order to help to a better 
understanding of the Association as it exists to¬ 
day. Following this will be a survey of the pres¬ 
ent condition of the work, with brief mention of 
the chief points in all of its many departments. 

1 Association Men , January, 1902. 

155 



156 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


The few criticisms to be made will be in line 
with those in the study as a whole, always with 
the fullest appreciation of the good that is being 
done and with the earnest hope of being even in 
a slight degree promotive of increased efficiency. 
The material of this chapter has been secured 
from two sets of reports by secretaries, on general 
religious work and shop meetings, from personal 
interviews, and official publications of the Asso¬ 
ciation. 


A. BEGINNINGS 

The old adage, “Great oaks from little acorns 
grow,” never had clearer illustration than in the 
history of the Young Men’s Christian Association. 
In 1835 George Williams, the fifteen year old son 
of a yeoman in the south of England, was ap¬ 
prenticed by his father to a merchant in Bridge- 
water. Coming under the influence of two or 
three fellow employees who were earnest Christ¬ 
ians, he was persuaded, the next year, to give his 
own heart to Christ. These few decided to work 
for the salvation of the other employees, who 
numbered over sixty. They began by holding 
prayer-meetings in their own rooms, which were 
on the upper floors of the establishment, and 
their efforts soon resulted in over a score of con¬ 
versions and the spreading of the work to near¬ 
by villages. 

In 1841 Williams went to London and entered a 
larger establishment. Here, with a fellow Christ- 



THE YOUNG Men’s CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 1 57 


ian, the same sort of work was begun. It soon 
outgrew their little rooms and larger quarters 
were given by the firm. The movement spread 
to other establishments and in 1844 a federation 
of workers was organized, known as the Young 
Men’s Christian Association. This wider work 
required some public place where men from the 
different houses could meet, and soon demanded 
the entire attention of a paid secretary. At some 
small sacrifice both of these were provided, and 
the Association was thus established on a firm 
basis. 

Its primary aim, as already noted, was dis¬ 
tinctively spiritual, yet it was soon seen that the 
organization could wisely minister to intellectual 
needs as well, both as a worthy end in itself and 
as a helpful means to the promotion of spiritual 
betterment. A further widening early came in 
the introduction of social features, likewise 
doubly justifiable. “Here was the beginning of 
the fundamental idea of the Young Men’s 
Christian Association, that the religion of Jesus 
Christ is intended to save, redeem and develop 
the whole man, body, soul, and spirit—an idea 
which has become dominant in the modern 
church, and which was to find its first organized 
expression in this Association.” 1 

A few years later the movement crossed the 
Atlantic, and in 1851 Associations were formed in 
Montreal and Boston, in the order named, copied 


* History of the Y. M. C. A p. 51. 






I58 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


after the English societies but entirely independ¬ 
ent of them and of each other. Here, as in the 
mother country, the idea soon began to spread 
and Associations were established in the principal 
cities. Inside of two years the number was over 
twenty, and the advisability of a federation 
began to be discussed. This was accomplished 
in 1854, at Buffalo, in a convention of delegates 
from as widely scattered points as Portland and 
San Francisco, Toronto and New Orleans. The 
working force of the new voluntary federation 
was a Central Committee, to “maintain cor¬ 
respondence with American and foreign kindred 
bodies, promote the formation of new Associ¬ 
ations, collect and diffuse information, and from 
time to time recommend to the Associations such 
measures as may seem calculated to promote the 
general object; but it shall not have authority to 
commit any local Association to any proposed 
plan of action until approved by said Association, 
nor to assess any pecuniary rate upon them with¬ 
out their consent.” 1 Thus clearly was the 
independence of each Association defined and 
guarded, and so continues at the present day. 
Each is a law unto itself, yet all act in harmo¬ 
ny by reason of common aims and a common 
spirit. 

With the establishment of the federation the 
way was prepared for that large growth which 
has made the Association one of the most 


1 History of the Y. M. C. A., p. 136. 





THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 159 


important factors in the life of our nation for 
the uplifting and enrichment of young manhood, 
physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually. 
The work in the United States and Canada is 
under the advisory supervision of the Inter¬ 
national Committee, a development of the earlier 
Central Committee, with headquarters at No. 3 
West 29th Street, New York City. Mr. Richard 
C. Morse is the general secretary and there are 
numerous department secretaries. 

Meanwhile the movement was spreading to 
other countries. The community of purpose 
existing between these scattered and wholly 
independent organizations led to a recognition of 
the need of some form of union for the better 
furtherance of the work. Accordingly on the 
invitation of the Paris Association nearly one 
hundred representatives, from both sides of the 
Atlantic, met in that city in August, 1855. This 
resulted in the formation of the World’s Alli¬ 
ance of Young Men’s Christian Associations and 
the consequent putting of the movement on an 
international basis. 

“The Association had introduced a new institu¬ 
tion into society; it had rallied a new social 
force—Christian young men. It had marshaled 
them into an organization which was now to 
step forth and take its place among the institu¬ 
tions of society.’’ 1 


History of the Y. M. C. A., p. 180. 





160 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


B. GROWTH 

The history of the growth of the Association 
can not even be sketched here. What it has 
been, under divine blessing, will appear from 
the following extract -from the January, 1903, 
number of Association Men , the official organ of 
the movement. 

“The American Association Record for IQ02. 

“Twelve million dollars represents in round 
figures the amount shown on the records of the 
American Young Men’s Christian Associations as 
expended and available in 1902 for their work, 
for the payment of bonded debts, for endow-, 
ment, and for the erection of new buildings. 
This sum includes in some instances the culmin¬ 
ating work of two and three years. . . . The 
membership list, with lapsed names eliminated, 
has over-topped 300,000, and the number of 
Associations exceeds 1,600. There has been 
steady progress in numbers, in efficiency, and in 
service; but especially notable and significant is 
the comprehensive study of Association problems 
and the apprehension of the needs of young men 
and the adaptation of the Association to meet 
them. ... A movement for the 4,000,000 men 
engaged in manufacturing pursuits, which will 
reach skilled mechanics, lumbermen, miners, 
cotton-mill operatives, etc., has taken shape and 
will be developed under the International Com¬ 
mittee’s guidance. Street Railway Associations, 




THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION l6l 


sustained by the traction companies in Brooklyn 
and Rochester, inaugurate that new movement. . . . 
The Railroad Association membership exceeds 50,- 
000; Student Department, 40,000; Boys’ Depart¬ 
ment, 50,000; and the Army and Navy, Colored, 
and Indian Associations show increase. Nearly 
30,000 young men are in the evening schools. 
Working boys between twelve and eighteen are 
drawn in large numbers into the evening classes 
and given education as well as evening recreation. 
The 200 summer camps enlisted fully 5,000 boys. 

. . . The first permanent building for the Naval 
Association, costing $450,000, has been opened in 
Brooklyn and is already crowded to its utmost 
limits. This has been followed by Associations 
at Norfolk and Newport. . . . With the sanction 
of Congress, two new buildings are being erected 
for soldiers at army posts. Quarters are set apart 
at seventy-one army posts for Soldiers’ Associa¬ 
tions, with the approval of commanding officers, 
and work is done on many battleships. . . . The 
way has been found to organize and help young 
men in isolated country places by County Associa¬ 
tions. . . . The missionary spirit characterizes the 
movement. Gifts for foreign work have increased 
from $55,000 to $80,000, and twelve of the best 
secretaries have been sent out to foreign lands 
during the year, and Association work has been 
extended to Mexico. . . . Growth has been most 
notable in the Associations of the South, of the 
Northwest, and among railroad men. . . . There 




162 the church and young men 


are now 450 buildings owned, costing over $24,- 
000,000; 1,800 paid officers on the list; the Inter¬ 
national Committee has secured its first million 
dollars of endowment, and the State committees 
have made good progress in the same direction. 
There has never been so deep an interest and 
so large an attendance in Bible classes and reli¬ 
gious services as in the past year; 78,000 men a 
Sunday for nine months are in evangelistic meet¬ 
ings, and 43,000 men attend the Bible classes. The 
number of Associations throughout the world is 
7,507, with 620,721 members, owning and occupy¬ 
ing 737 buildings, valued at over $32,000,000.” 

All of the various departments mentioned here 
will be treated more or less fully further on. This 
extract has been given as affording a general sur¬ 
vey of the manifold work of the Associations, 
such as could hardly be secured from separate 
accounts, however concise. 

Another indication of the growth of the move¬ 
ment is afforded by the many lines of work carried 
on by the great city Associations, for example the 
one in Chicago. It is organized on the metro¬ 
politan plan, with a general board of managers, 
trustees and officers. The work is divided into 
three branches, general, railroad, and student. 
There are five general departments, one at the 
center of the city, occupying one of the finest 
Association buildings in the world, and the others 
in outlying districts. Five railroad departments 
offer physical, mental, and spiritual advantages 



THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 163 


to a class of men to whom millions of people 
daily entrust their lives. Sixteen student depart¬ 
ments, in connection with as many colleges and 
professional schools, help to counteract the too 
often antispiritual tendencies of student life and 
to insure trained leaders, both ministers and lay¬ 
men, for the churches. A foreign secretary is 
also supported in the Island of Ceylon. The 
annual budget is over $150,000, while the total 
value of all property is over $2,000,000. The gen¬ 
eral secretary is Mr. L.Wilbur Messer. 

C. MEMBERSHIP BASIS 

A marked feature of the history of the Asso¬ 
ciation has been its constant adherence to the 
principle that it is primarily a Christian organiza¬ 
tion, with active membership limited to professed 
followers of Jesus Christ. In the constitution of 
the original Association, formed by George Wil¬ 
liams and his associates in London in 1844, it was 
provided: “That no person shall be considered 
eligible to become a member of this Association 
unless he be a member of a Christian church, or 
there be sufficient evidence of his being a convert¬ 
ed character.” 1 

In the founding of the Boston Association, in 
1851, the question was an acute one, owing to the 
large number of Unitarian and Universalist 
churches. After much consideration the promo¬ 
ters of the movement unanimously adopted a con- 


1 History of the Y. M. C. A., p. 41. 





164 the church and young men 


stitution providing for two classes of membership: 
(i) active, confined to members in regular stand¬ 
ing of evangelical churches; (2) associate, any 
young man of good moral character, such being 
entitled to all the privileges of the Association 
except eligibility to office and voting. 1 Upon 
the establishment of the World’s Alliance at 
Paris, in 1855, the following statement was adopted 
as the fundamental principle of the Association 
movement: “The Young Men’s Christian Associa¬ 
tions seek to unite those young men who, regard¬ 
ing Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour accord¬ 
ing to the holy Scriptures, desire to be His disci¬ 
ples in their doctrine and in their life, and to 
associate their efforts for the extension of His 
kingdom among men.’’ 2 This has been known 
ever since as the Paris Basis and is considered 
“the most notable declaration of Association 
history.” 

It was perhaps in part due to the characteristic 
American spirit of independence that the question 
continued to be debated in this country, for since 
every Association is an independent body it may 
make its own regulations. The need was increas¬ 
ingly felt of some authoritative statement upon 
the qualifications for active membership. As there 
was no governing body, this could only take the 
form of a resolution at one of the annual national 
conventions, defining what Associations should be 
entitled to representation. 


1 History of the Y. M. C. A., pp. 115-117. 3 Same, p. 177. 




THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 165 


At the Detroit convention in 1868, the follow¬ 
ing was adopted: “ Resolved: That as these organ¬ 
izations bear the name of Christian and profess 
to be engaged directly in the Saviour’s service, so 
it is clearly their duty to maintain the control 
and management of all their affairs in the hands 
of those who profess to love and publicly avow 
their faith in Jesus, the Redeemer, as divine, 
and who testify their faith by becoming and re¬ 
maining members of churches held to be evan¬ 
gelical, and that such persons and none others 
should be allowed to vote or hold office.” 

At the Portland convention, in 1869, the follow¬ 
ing definition was added: “And we hold those 
churches to be evangelical which, maintaining the 
holy Scriptures to be the only infallible rule of 
faith and practice, do believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ (the only begotten of the Father, King of 
kings, and Lord of lords, in whom dwelleth the 
fulness of the Godhead bodily, who was made 
sin for us, though knowing no sin, bearing our 
sins in His own body on the tree), as the only 
name given among men whereby we must be 
saved from everlasting punishment, and unto life 
eternal.” 1 The last four words were added by 
the International Convention of 1893. 

This test need not bar any young man from en¬ 
joying all the privileges of the Association and 
that to a large extent it does not do so appears 
from the fact that in one case, the central depart- 


1 Pamphlet on The Test of Active Membership, pp. 14, 15, 






l66 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


ment in Chicago, there are more members who 
belong to Roman Catholic churches than to any 
Protestant denomination, while there are very 
nearly as many Jews as Lutherans, besides a 
considerable number of Unitarians and Univer- 
salists. 

On the other hand, the experience of half a cen¬ 
tury has demonstrated the wisdom of adherence 
to this test. It is the distinctively religious ele¬ 
ment in Association work which furnishes a sub¬ 
stantial basis for the whole. “The character 
of the work of the Association is first and frankly 
Christian. It does not apologize for its faith, 
and in the fullest and largest measure endeavors 
to make its faith and the influence of that faith 
of first and supreme importance. It stands for 
the common faith of the evangelical churches, 
all of which are, under its charter, represented 
in its membership and boards of managers.” 1 
While its privileges are open to all, its govern¬ 
ment is wisely intrusted only to the members of 
the churches which it represents. 

D. LINES OF WORK 

I. Religious. Turning to a survey of the many 
lines of Association activity the distinctively 
religious naturally comes first, not only because 
it was first developed but because it is of the first 
importance. It is primarily for the spiritual bet¬ 
terment of young men that the Association exists, 


1 Chicago Association Report , 1901, p. 9. 






THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 1 67 


and the chief means to the attainment of this end 
is distinctively religious effort. Its other work 
may be done with the greatest success, but if this 
be left undone the Association, as such, has no 
justification for its existence—it is only a club, 
and not a distinctively religious organization. 
“The Young Men’s Christian Association is dif¬ 
ferentiated from merely recreative, educational, 
or ethical movements by its pervading spiritual 
intent and its aggressive religious activity. The 
establishment of righteousness through complete 
self-surrender to and faith in Jesus Christ as 
Saviour and Master is its fundamental and con¬ 
trolling purpose.” 1 

There are several divisions of this work: 

1) Bible study. This is subdivided into four sec¬ 
tions; (a) general, to furnish a comprehensive 
grasp of the Scriptures; (b) devotional, for the 
promotion of spiritual growth; (c) for training 
in public work, as church and Sunday-school; (d) 
evangelistic, for winning young men to Christ. 
A large number of carefully prepared and graded 
courses have been provided by able teachers, 
covering the entire range of Bible history and 
teaching, and such related topics as New Testa¬ 
ment Greek, hymnology and practical problems. 
These usually contain twenty-five lessons and end 
with a written examination, the questions being 
furnished by the International Committee, and 
certificates granted by them. In the Boston Asso- 


1 Pamphlet on The Religious Work: Principles and Methods , p. 5. 






l68 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


ciation there were seventeen classes the past 
year; Philadelphia, twenty-one; Rochester, 
twenty-seven; Buffalo, twenty-one; Cleveland, 
forty; Dayton, twenty-eight; Chicago, eighteen; 
St. Louis, twelve. Occasional Bible lectures are 
given on themes of general interest, and home 
study courses have been introduced for those 
who can not attend the classes. 

2) Religious meetings. These are of various 
kinds, but the best known, held by practically all 
city Associations, is the Sunday afternoon men’s 
meeting. This commonly, though not always, 
has a distinctly evangelistic purpose, and is thus 
the direct successor of the meetings first estab¬ 
lished in London by Williams and his associates. 
Some of its advantages are thus given by several 
secretaries. “We get hold of a class of men 
who are prejudiced against churches and will not 
attend their services; we aim to reach men who 
sleep late Sunday mornings and spend the even¬ 
ing in social pleasures, and so would not be in any 
religious service but for this; men are brought 
under gospel influence who would not be other¬ 
wise, and are led to conversion and church mem¬ 
bership; a distinctively men’s meeting appeals 
to many and some will take a stand who would 
not do so in a mixed meeting; many night work¬ 
ers find this their only opportunity for attending 
a religious service on Sunday; it is good as a 
common meeting for members of different 
churches, thereby promoting wider Christian 



THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 169 


fellowship.” That it is sometimes so conducted 
as to be practically another church service and 
hence to become to some extent a rival, over¬ 
taxing the strength of some and giving to others 
an excuse for not attending evening services, is 
no doubt true. On the whole, however, there 
can be no question but that it is a great power 
for good, and one that deserves even heartier 
support. 

In the Cleveland Association the “pleasant 
Sunday afternoon” idea has been largely devel¬ 
oped, the purpose being to furnish a wholesome 
and thoroughly enjoyable counter-attraction to 
the many distractions that in most cities are turn¬ 
ing a religious holy-day into a secular holiday. 
Beginning at a quarter before three o’clock, a 
musical program by the Association orchestra is 
followed by an address by some speaker of local 
or national reputation. At four comes a social 
half-hour, when men stroll about the commodious 
building or listen to an informal program of vocal 
music. Bible study occupies the next three- 
quarters of an hour, voluntary groups being 
formed on lines of social affiliation and the 
topics discussed with the utmost freedom. The 
afternoon closes with supper in the gymnasium, 
for which each pays a small fee covering the cost. 
From first to last those in charge try to make 
the afternoon as completely informal and genu¬ 
inely social as possible in keeping with the title 
“The Sunday Club.” The plan has proved very 




170 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


popular, and the Association workers have thus 
been brought into close touch with many young 
men whom they would not have reached other¬ 
wise. 

Smaller meetings, more distinctively for the 
furtherance of personal spiritual life, are com¬ 
monly held, as also morning and evening prayer 
services, usually quite informal. There are 
special meetings daily during the Association 
Week of Prayer, beginning with the second Sun¬ 
day in November, and also at such other times 
as may seem advantageous. Large city Associ¬ 
ations often hold noon meetings every week-day, 
this having been the custom in Chicago for thirty 
years. Meetings are also held outside the 
Association quarters, as in jails, hospitals, 
churches, tents, and shops. The last named 
will be presented in a special section. 

Some idea of the effectiveness of the distinc¬ 
tively religious work appears from the number of 
professed conversions reported by many Associ¬ 
ations for one year, among them being St. Paul, 
210; Des Moines, 77; St. Louis, 100; Chicago, 
over200; Dayton, 74; and Rochester, 300. That 
many who are thus converted do not become 
church members is unfortunately true. The 
reason lies chiefly in the lack of coordination of 
the Association and the churches, which will be 
considered in the last section of the chapter. 

3) Personal work. By this is meant direct 
individual effort to win young men to Christ. 




THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 171 


This is usually furthered by a personal workers’ 
league, which meets regularly for Bible study and 
consultation, under an experienced leader. The 
ultimate success of evangelistic meetings depends 
in large measure upon the close co-operation of 
this form of service. The public speaker sows 
the gospel seed broadcast; the personal worker 
reaps the harvest a stalk at a time. 

4) Shop meetings . This is one of the most 
recent forms of Association activity along dis¬ 
tinctively religious lines. It practically com¬ 
bines all three of the foregoing methods of work, 
and consists in the holding of religious meet¬ 
ings, often for Bible study, in shops and factories 
during the noon intermission, supplemented by 
personal work. The only printed matter dealing 
specifically with this new work is a pamphlet on 
Shop Bible Classes, published by the Cleveland 
Association, and since it is out of print, some 
extracts follow. 

“The new movement differs from the sporadic 
attempts to evangelize workingmen through lay 
sermonizing, in that it seeks to aid the men in 
understanding the simple and fundamental truths 
of Scripture. This they like and engage in with 
enthusiasm. One of our chief obstacles has been 
the memory of meetings held at sundry times by 
well-meaning persons who treated the men as 
objects of effort, rather than as comrades with 
good minds and warm hearts. , . . No contro¬ 
verted themes are discussed. Men of all creeds 





172 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


and no creeds are there. The simplest methods 
of teaching the great fundamental truths of the 
Bible are followed. The attendants are both 
Protestant and Catholic—one class is as greatly 
interested as the other. . . . The influence of 
such work is felt in every shop where estab¬ 
lished. Profanity and impure conversation have 
decreased, and indirectly a friendly feeling fos¬ 
tered between employer and employee. Employ¬ 
ers often cooperate by furnishing books and 
organs. It also encourages honest and faithful 
service among the men, by cultivating a robust 
moral sentiment. 

“The meeting takes the form of a Bible study 
rather than an evangelistic address. Experience 
seems to show that interest can be maintained 
longer with this means than any other. The men 
never seem to weary of handling the Testament, 
reading the lesson and making themselves believe 
they are studious members of a Bible class, learn¬ 
ing something by their own effort every week. 
Winter and summer they attend with increasing 
interest and numbers. . . . The study is made in 
an expository manner. It is not possible to de¬ 
velop the lesson by means of questions at first, yet 
it can be put in that form. The leader may have 
to answer most of his own questions for a time 
but, to a great extent, the benefit of the question 
method will be secured, as the men will attempt 
to answer in their own minds and gradually grow 
bold enough to answer audibly. ... A large 




THE YOUNG MEN*S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 1 73 


chart of manila paper, three by five feet, with 
the outline printed in letters large enough to be 
read fifty feet away, is a helpful auxiliary. If left 
in the shop, it aids the men in discussing the topics 
through the week, and advertises the class to new 
men.” 

The whole service must be bright, interesting 
and brief. In the Cleveland shops, the noon inter¬ 
mission being only half an hour, exactly twelve 
minutes are taken for the meeting. “Care must 
be exercised not to attempt too much. A few 
points clearly presented and well illustrated have 
proved the most potent in reaching the men.” 
Music proves a valuable ally. “At the begin¬ 
ning of the work in a shop, nothing will make 
it so popular as good music. Occasionally the 
entire time can be given to a musical program. In 
modern shops, where there are conveniences for 
eating, music can be given while the men are at 
lunch. This both aids digestion and leaves addi¬ 
tional time for the Bible study. After all, the best 
thing is to get the men to sing themselves. Noth¬ 
ing is so good for them as a heartily sung 
hymn.” 

In such a work, with meetings but once a week 
and no chance to speak afterward to any who may 
manifest special interest, the results in the way of 
conversions, of which there have been several, 
will come slowly and must be gathered by per¬ 
sonal work. But even if no conversions occur, 
results such as those before indicated amply repay 




174 THE church and young men 


all the effort. In Cleveland there are now fifteen 
classes meeting weekly, with a total attendance of 
fifteen hundred. All are studying “The Story of 
Jesus,” a course designed by Mr. Augustus Nash, 
the religious work director of the Association. 
The men are provided with New Testaments 
(paid for by themselves, their employers,-or the 
Association) and cards containing the topics and 
references. The classes are conducted by volun¬ 
teer workers, who meet weekly for consultation 
and study. 

In Dayton, Ohio, there are eight shop meet¬ 
ings held weekly, with an attendance of fourteen 
hundred. These are of a more general and dis¬ 
tinctively evangelistic character. Mr, G. N. 
Bierce, a prominent Association worker of wide 
experience, writes: “A popular gospel hymn is 
sung to call the men together. The leader then 
reads a brief portion of Scripture, selecting a 
passage containing practical and helpful lessons 
to men in their everyday life. This is analyzed, 
bringing out a few points clearly and sharply, 
which are sometimes written with crayon on large 
brown paper. Another hymn is sung, a prayer 
offered, and good-bye said. The time being so 
limited, everything must be crisp, sharp, and 
pointed. Several of the men have been converted 
and added to the churches. Our great shops and 
factories afford a splendid opportunity for car¬ 
rying the gospel direct to the men employed 
therein, and, in my judgment, the Association is 




THE YOUNG MEN*S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 175 


incomparably superior to any other existing 
agency for performing this important service. 
This work furnishes another demonstration of 
its ability to appreciate and provide for the needs 
of men.” One unusual feature of this work in 
Dayton, and occasionally elsewhere, is its appro¬ 
val by Roman Catholic priests. 

At Louisville, Kentucky, ten such meetings are 
held each week, seven at Warren, Pennsylvania, 
and one or more in upwards of about one hun¬ 
dred other places. Some follow the Cleveland 
plan of consecutive Bible studies, and others the 
Dayton plan of a more general service, each of 
which, with capable leadership, brings results that 
are of inestimable value. A single instance of the 
value of these shop meetings is worth noting. 
In one city the owners of a large establishment, 
employing men of eight nationalities, told the 
secretary that they were sure he could not accom¬ 
plish anything, since even they were afraid of 
their men, but he might try. He did try; a large 
and successful class was established, and one 
result was such a gratifying change in the moral 
tone and temper of the men that the firm now 
contributes, unsought, two hundred dollars a year 
to the Association as a token of appreciation, 
whereas nothing was given formerly. 

This is clearly one of the most promising fields 
of activity now before the Association, and will 
doubtless be largely entered into in the near 
future. The extra expense is trifling, the largest 





176 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


annual cost being two hundred and fifty dollars, 
and in this case—Dayton—the men themselves 
provide for all of it. 

5 ) Office Bible classes. Another work has been 
started the past summer by the Cleveland Associ¬ 
ation, similar in character to the preceding but 
for business and professional men and clerks. 
Three Bible classes were established in office 
buildings in the heart of the city, meeting weekly 
for thirty minutes during the noon hour. Two 
of them meet in a bank director’s room and the 
third in an assembly room. Despite the unfavor¬ 
able time of year the enrolment has been nearly 
sixty, and the success attending the inauguration 
of the work has been such that it is to be rapidly 
enlarged. 

This newest form of extension work for the 
Association deserves high commendation, both in 
principle and method, and will doubtless be taken 
up soon in many other cities. 

6) Foreign missions. Although originated for 
the purpose of helping young men in local com¬ 
munities, the work of the Associations has now 
spread to missionary fields. Inasmuch as there 
are some who criticize the Associations for tak¬ 
ing up work which, according to their own ideas, 
should be done only by the churches, the follow¬ 
ing statement by a member of the International 
Committee is worth noting: “We have never 
occupied a foreign field except at the earnest 
request of the missionaries on the field, and in 




THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 177 


nearly every case the request has had to lie in 
the office of the Committee for one or more years 
before we were able to answer the call of these 
earnest men of God, who beseech us to send out 
our secretaries to do the work there that our young 
men are doing in this country.” 1 

This work was undertaken in 1899, and there are 
now thirty secretaries on the foreign field, of 
whom five are in Japan, one in Korea, seven in 
China, thirteen in India, one in Ceylon, two in 
South America, and one in Mexico. The total 
number of Associations is 300, 145 of which are 
student organizations. The approximate mem¬ 
bership is 14,000, of whom 3,600 are professed 
Christians. 

For the arousing and sustaining of interest in 
this world-wide movement occasional public 
meetings are held, and classes established for the 
study of fields. There is an extensive list of pub¬ 
lications, and a quarterly periodical called the 
Foreign Mail. In many Associations the mission¬ 
ary interests are in charge of a Volunteer Band, 
which corresponds to that in the student depart¬ 
ment. Several provide the entire support of a 
foreign secretary. 

2. Educational. The close union of the spiritual 
and intellectual elements of human nature was 
recognized from the beginning of Association 
work. A reading-room and library were among 
the features of the first quarters occupied by the 


1 Boston Jubilee Report , p. 233. 






178 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


London Association, and these were soon sup¬ 
plemented by popular lecture courses. Classes 
for instruction in ancient and modern languages, 
mathematics, book-keeping, history, and essay 
writing, were in operation as early as 1850. 1 

The Associations in the United States have 
developed the educational work to a high 
degree. In the Boston Association, for example, 
the Evening Institute, as this department is 
called, offers from one to six years of continuous 
study in over one hundred lines of work. Its 
courses, text-books and methods are duplicates of 
those employed in the best day schools. The 
teaching force numbers sixty experienced men, 
selected for professional ability and high moral 
character. Instruction is offered not only in all 
the common branches, but in such lines as art, 
architecture, music, civil service, engineering, 
ancient and modern languages, literature, higher 
mathematics, naval architecture, navigation and 
seamanship. In a recent year nearly seventeen 
hundred young men availed themselves of these 
classes. A day school, from three to five o’clock, 
has also been established for the benefit of men 
employed at night. 

Ordinarily, however, the educational work of 
the Association is quite distinct from that of reg¬ 
ular schools. “ It does not presume to duplicate 
or compete with the public or private schools, 
academies, or colleges, which restrict their efforts 


1 History of the Y. M. C. A., p. 67. 




THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 179 


largely to the fundamental education of those 
who are professionally students, and whose train¬ 
ing comes largely as the result of activities within 
the school room. On the other hand, it does 
seek to stand for leadership and aid in the supple¬ 
mentary education of the great majority, who 
can not be professionally students, but whose 
training, resulting from their daily life activities, 
is deficient without the complement that will 
come from adapted instruction and well-directed 
intellectual endeavor.” 1 

Many Associations also have an extensive 
course of day instruction. In Chicago the Asso¬ 
ciation College of the central department is 
subdivided into five regular day schools, in session 
the entire year; namely: English, for common 
branches; Commercial, for bookkeeping, banking, 
and general office work; Stenographic, for short¬ 
hand and typewriting; Technical Preparatory, 
fitting for engineering schools, manufacturing, or 
skilled trade work; and College Preparatory. 
The evening schools, from September to June, 
are College Preparatory and Supplemental, the 
latter offering sixty courses. There is also a boys’ 
summer school for those who wish to make up 
back work or prepare for promotion. 

A significant movement is being inaugurated in 
Chicago for the extension of the educational work. 
In large establishments remote from the center of 
the city the employers have for some time been 


1 Association Men , September, 1901, p. 445. 






l8o THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


asking that the Association conduct evening 
classes similar to those at its headquarters. 
This is about to be done, and will thus bring the 
Association into touch with large numbers other¬ 
wise unreached, many of whom may, by the 
personal influence of its teachers, be led to 
become disciples of the great Teacher. 

The educational work is carried on by all the 
large Associations and many of the small ones. 
Annual examinations are held under the direction 
of the International Committee, and the cer¬ 
tificates awarded to successful students are recog¬ 
nized at their face value, in lieu of examination, 
by over a hundred colleges and universities. 

3. Physical. “It belongs to the fundamental 
idea of Association work that religion saves the 
whole man, and whatever helps to make him a 
better man in body, mind or spirit, lifts him to a 
higher life.” 1 

Practical recognition is given to the physical 
side of this idea by over five hundred gymna¬ 
siums, with a hundred thousand attendants. 
Three hundred directors and assistants are 
employed in this work, which is conducted on 
approved scientific lines. The subordination of 
the physical to the spiritual is evidenced by the 
fact that Christian character is a requisite quali¬ 
fication of a director. They are expected to be 
leaders in Christian service, and last year over 
one hundred of them taught Bible classes, over 


1 History of the Y. M. C. A p. 69. 






THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION l8l 


eleven hundred of whose members joined churches. 
A large measure of spiritual good also results 
from the purely physical training, with its attend¬ 
ant instruction in the care of the earthly house of 
the spirit. While there may sometimes be a 
tendency to exalt muscular Christianity unduly, 
the result on the whole has been of great benefit 
to distinctively spiritual life. Health of spirit no 
less than health of mind is promoted by health of 
body. The old-time pillar saint, whose chief 
visible claims to sanctity were bodily deformity 
and abstinence from ablutions, is no longer a 
spiritual ideal for young men, thanks in no small 
measure to such work as the physical department 
of the Association is doing. 

4. Social. Although it has been common to 
speak of Association work as three-fold, cor¬ 
responding to the preceding lines of work, yet 
the social element in human nature has always 
been recognized. In the first rooms of the 
London Association provision was made for this 
need. Every Association renders valuable service 
to young men by providing a center for social 
life, thus enabling them to spend their leisure 
hours in a wholesome and Christian environment. 
In the words of President Roosevelt: “The 
Young Men’s Christian Association would have 
demonstrated its value a hundredfold if it had 
done nothing more than furnish reading-rooms, 
gymnasiums, and places where, especially after 
nightfall, those without homes or without attrac- 




182 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


tive homes could go without receiving injury.” 1 
All Associations have social committees, and in 
many the importance of the work is recognized 
by the establishment of a separate department 
for its promotion, with a director in charge. 

E. SPECIAL CLASSES 

I. Students. Religious societies existed in 
American colleges over a century ago, but they 
had no affiliation with each other. In 1858 
Associations were organized in the Universities 
of Michigan and Virginia, and many others 
followed. In 1877 the International Committee 
appointed Mr. L. D. Wishard secretary for college 
work, with the addition, in 1888, of Mr. John R. 
Mott, and in recent years of others, one of whom 
gives his entire time to the promotion of Bible 
study. The Associations have become a large 
power for good in student life, and have had no 
small part in its transformation from the notori¬ 
ously godless condition that prevailed even in 
colleges under denominational control two or 
three generations ago. Many of them have finely 
equipped buildings which serve as centers for 
religious and social life. 

One enjoyable and profitable feature of the 
student work is the holding of summer confer¬ 
ences at Northfield, Massachusetts, Lake Geneva, 
Wisconsin, and other places, where study, con¬ 
ference, and recreation are happily blended. By 


1 Century Magazine, October, 1900. 





THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 183 


such means as this and the holding of conventions 
much has been done to remove the bitter hos¬ 
tility once existing between educational institu¬ 
tions. In the words of President Wilson of 
Princeton University: “This movement has done 
more to bring the colleges into sympathy and 
comradeship than any other. The things that 
bind men together are not the rational processes 
of the mind, but the movements of the spirit, and 
when you get men’s spirits bound together, you 
have them in a brotherhood whose bonds can 
not be broken.” 1 

Bismarck said that one-third of the graduates 
of the German universities ruled the empire, and 
a similar state of affairs is coming to pass in our 
own land. The work of the Associations, in help¬ 
ing to make these coming rulers men of earnest 
spiritual life, is of inestimable value for the 
future welfare of the nation. Within the history 
of Association work, the proportion of Christians 
in American colleges has changed from less than 
one-third to more than one-half, a result due in 
no small degree to this agency. Over thirty 
thousand conversions of students are traceable at 
least in part to its work. The Intercollegian y a 
monthly magazine, is the official organ of the 
student work. 

A marked feature in connection with the relig¬ 
ious side of modern student life is the Student 
Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions. 


* Association Men , January, 1903. P-160* 





184 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


American interest in world-wide evangelization 
is largely traceable to the famous “haystack 
prayer-meeting” at Williams College, Massachu¬ 
setts, when a small group of students consecrated 
their lives to this work. It was due to their 
zeal that the first foreign missionary society in 
the United States, the American Board of Com¬ 
missioners for Foreign Missions, was founded in 
1810. In many colleges and seminaries societies 
were organized for the promotion of interest in 
foreign missions, and in 1880 the American 
Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance was estab¬ 
lished, which has since been merged into the 
Student Department of the Association. 

The Volunteer Movement originated at North- 
field, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1886, 
when two hundred and fifty students from many 
colleges came together on Mr. Moody’s invita¬ 
tion to attend a summer conference. One result 
was the decision of a hundred young men to 
devote their lives to the service of their Master 
in foreign lands. Two were appointed to visit 
student centers during the year, and later the 
work was put on a firm basis by careful organiza¬ 
tion. There is an executive committee, supple¬ 
mented by an advisory board consisting of eight 
representatives of the leading denominational 
missionary societies. Nine secretaries give their 
entire time to the work. Two attend to office 
business, one to the educational work, and six 
visit all the higher institutions of learning in 




THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 1 85 


the country. They present the claims of the 
foreign work, establish Volunteer Bands of those 
who are willing to go to the field, organize classes 
for mission study, start missionary libraries, con¬ 
fer with committees and officers, and in every 
possible way advance the interests of the work. 
Quadrennial conventions are held, the last being 
at Toronto, in 1902, with an attendance of nearly 
3,000 registered delegates, of whom 247 were 
members of faculties, 107 foreign missionaries, 
and 82 representatives of missionary boards of all 
denominations. 

No missionaries are sent out, but all volunteers 
are referred to the boards of their respective 
denominations. It is simply a recruiting agency 
and as such has proved a great power. Over 
two thousand volunteers have gone to the field, 
serving in connection with fifty societies in all 
parts of the non-Christian world. The movement 
has spread to the churches and the student cam¬ 
paign is now an established feature in several de¬ 
nominations, bands of students spending their 
vacations and, in one case, an entire year, in 
church visitation. Student life in foreign coun¬ 
tries has also been reached, and a World’s Stu¬ 
dent Christian Federation established, with work 
in all the great university centers. There is 
probably no one movement that is rendering 
larger or more valuable service to the cause of 
foreign missions than this one among students 
of our own and all lands for the realization of 




1 86 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


its heroic watchword: “The evangelization of the 
world in this generation.” 

2. Railroad men. Another evidence of the 
presence of the “spirit of life in the wheels” of 
this great religious machine is the extension of 
its work to other classes of young men than those 
among whom it began operations. 

Through the reformation of a railroad employee 
in Cleveland a work was begun for railroad men 
in the union depot by the holding of a preaching 
service on Sunday. For a time the city pastors 
conducted these services but soon, and partly at 
their suggestion, the Association took up the 
work. The managers of the roads fitted up a 
reading-room, and the first railroad Association 
was soon established, in 1872. Inside of a few 
years many others were organized, and in 1877 
the International Committee appointed a special 
secretary for the work. It has had a large growth, 
until there are nearly two hundred Associations, 
many with fine buildings, providing not only all 
the accommodations of a city Association, but 
often boarding facilities. 

The special need for such work among the 
hundreds of thousands of young men connected 
with railroads, including express and mail service, 
lies in the nature of their work, which requires 
so much absence from home and often necessi¬ 
tates many hours of unemployed time at division 
points. Whereas formerly the saloon and the 
brothel were 'about the only places of public 





THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 187 


resort open to the young man out on his run, 
now he can have rest and recreation and refresh¬ 
ment amid the most wholesome surroundings. 
An evidence of the practical appreciation of these 
opportunities by the men is found in the fact that 
while Roman Catholics are not eligible to active 
membership, in many railroad Associations they 
outnumber the men of any other denomination, 
and in at least one place all of them together. 

From the outset of this movement railroad 
officials have been cordial in sympathy and 
hearty in support. In many cases they erect 
the buildings as a proper item of expense for 
the equipment of the road, and also contribute 
to the cost of operation. Prominent officials say 
of this work: “The Association does more in fit¬ 
ting men to fulfill their duties for the safety of 
the public than all the patent appliances of the 
age.” “If we surround our men with better 
influences we shall have better men—physically, 
intellectually, socially, morally. In my judg¬ 
ment, the Young Men’s Christian Association is 
better adapted to change the environment of the 
railroad man than any other existing institution.” 
“While it may be urged by some that it is no 
part of the business of a railroad company to 
make Christians of the men, it is very much its 
business to make sober, moral men of them. 
Any money successfully expended for that end is 
well expended and will bring manifold returns in 
better service, better care of stock and track, 




1 88 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


real economy in all expenditures.” “I believe 
that the work carried on by the Young Men’s 
Christian Association could not be done as effec¬ 
tively by any other organization. We have 
abundant testimony from railway officials who 
have tried to accomplish the same results with¬ 
out the religious element, that the experiments 
have been failures. The religious feature of the 
work is the basis of its permanency and suc¬ 
cess.” 

3. Traveling men. A special work on behalf of 
commercial travelers was inaugurated in 1879, 
and a secretary appointed by the International 
Committee. This was afterward discontinued as 
a separate department, and each Association left 
to attend to the needs of this class, with the 
cooperation of the Committee. A special ticket 
entitles the holder to the privileges of any Asso¬ 
ciation. 

4. Wage earners. For many years it has been 
recognized that, with the exception of the rail¬ 
road work, the Associations were doing but little 
for the great body of wage-earners commonly 
known as workingmen. Mr. H. E. Coleman, 
secretary of the Weymouth, Massachusetts, Asso¬ 
ciation, has made a special study of the industrial 
work and furnishes the following. 

‘‘In upwards of four hundred Associations con¬ 
ducting educational work, 48 per cent of the 
thirty thousand students belonged to the indus¬ 
trial class. Thirty-seven representative Associa- 




THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 189 


tions report an average of 37 per cent of their 
members belonging to this group. Thirty-nine 
of their classes were in distinctly industrial 
courses, with mechanical drawing as the most 
popular. Nineteen Associations report nearly 
twenty-five hundred books on kindred topics. 

“The attitude of employers toward the Associa¬ 
tions appears in the fact that twenty-four report 
over $15,000 subscribed annually by industrial 
corporations for current expense, and four report 
nearly as much from similar sources for build¬ 
ings. There are a number of Associations wholly 
for the use of employees. The Johnson Iron 
Company at Lorain, Ohio, gave a building and 
furnishes $2,000 a year for the support of the 
work, while the Westinghouse Company at Wil- 
merding, Pennsylvania, a lumber company at 
Stamps, Arkansas, and the Vermont Marble Com¬ 
pany at Proctor, Vermont, have pursued a similar 
course, the building at Proctor costing $30,000. 
In each case the men themselves pay moderate 
fees (as in the case of the railroad Associations), 
thus preserving a spirit of manly self-respect. 

“The fact that the Young Men’s Christian 
Association is rising to its opportunity for extend¬ 
ing its work to young men of the industrial group 
is further shown in the recent appointment of Mr. 
C. C. Michener as Industrial Secretary of the 
International Committee. Pie will give his whole 
time to the development of Associations in 
industrial centers. A large number of corpora- 




igo THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


tions have already asked him to consider their 
institutions as possible places for the establish¬ 
ment of Associations.” 

5. Army and navy . In May, 1861, the New 
York Association undertook religious work in 
the camps and barracks in and about the city. 
In October of the same year it called a meeting of 
all Northern Associations, resulting in the estab¬ 
lishment of the United States Christian Com¬ 
mission. For four years a great work was carried 
on among soldiers through the agency of the 
Commission, which was not at all limited to the 
Associations, distributing relief in money and 
supplies to the value of over five million dollars, 
and employing the services of over five thousand 
men and women in hospital and evangelistic 
work. During the war both Northern and South¬ 
ern Associations gave practically all their atten¬ 
tion to work of this sort. 

The outbreak of the war with Spain furnished 
another great opportunity. Inside of two months 
there were forty regimental and brigade tents 
in charge of sixty secretaries, the numbers in¬ 
creasing later to ninety and one hundred and 
seventy-five respectively. A splendid work was 
done along the various lines of Association 
activity, and is still being carried on at army 
posts, both at home and in the new island posses¬ 
sions. A similar work for the navy was inaugu¬ 
rated and a fine property, costing $450,000, has 
been recently dedicated at the Brooklyn Navy 




THE YOUNG MEN S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION IQI 


Yard. The work has the hearty approval and 
cooperation of the United States Government. 

6. Colored men . While the Associations do 
not draw the color line, it has been found 
advisable to have separate organizations in the 
South. It originated in a request of the colored 
ministers of Richmond, Virginia, for an exten¬ 
sion of the work among the freedmen. The 
work was organized in 1879, and now has two col¬ 
ored secretaries. It has had a moderate growth, 
partly in cities, but mostly in schools. Where 
the colored Associations are weak, an advisory 
board of leading white citizens is sometimes estab¬ 
lished. Speaking of this work, Mr. Booker T. 
Washington said: “One of the best things you 
can do for a young black man in the South is to 
help the Association in making him the most use¬ 
ful and the most reliable Christian in his com¬ 
munity.” 1 

7. North American Indians. Work among this 
race originated in 1881 in the spontaneous rise of 
organizations among the Sioux closely akin to 
the Associations. In 1885 they were represented 
in the annual conventions of Minnesota and 
Dakota. In 1894, in response to the earnest re¬ 
quest of the Indian young men and the mission¬ 
aries working among them, one of their own 
number, a graduate of Dartmouth College, was 
appointed as a special secretary to develop the 
work. A successor was appointed in 1898, also 


1 Jubilee Report , p. 141. 






192 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


one of their own number and thoroughly edu¬ 
cated. There are several Association buildings, 
and great good is being done. * 

8. Boys. Association workers have not over¬ 
looked the vital fact that the trend of a young 
man’s life is already determined to a large 
degree by the time he is eligible to membership. 
As early as 1873 some Associations held special 
meetings for boys, and work for them along prac¬ 
tically the same lines as for young men now has 
a place in most Associations. There are some 
fifty thousand boys in the various junior depart¬ 
ments, and the number is growing rapidly. 

“The work of the past year has been character¬ 
ized by the attention given to working boys. We 
have begun to realize that this work has a direct 
relation to reaching the industrial classes. In¬ 
creased attention has also been given to the needs 
of high school boys, especially along religious 
lines. Much careful, prayerful experimenting is 
being done in meetings for these older boys and 
in directing them in Christian service.” 1 

F. TRAINING SCHOOLS 

It is not any enthusiastic young man with a 
pleasant smile and a stock of Bible proof texts 
that can be a successful Association secretary. 
A thoroughly trained mind, as well as a deep 
spiritual life, are no less essential to the highest 
success here than in the ministry. More and 

1 Association Men, January, 1903, p. 158. 




THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 193 


more the secretaryship is getting to be a distinct 
calling, demanding the highest qualifications of 
body, mind, and spirit. 

Recognition of this fact finds expression in 
two training schools, each with able instructors 
and good equipment, at Springfield, Massachu¬ 
setts, and Chicago, the latter holding a summer 
session at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. These offer 
training in all lines of Association activity and 
have been instrumental not only in supplying a 
rapidly growing demand but in bettering the 
quality of the supply. With the consequent 
raising of the secretarial standards will come 
increasing power for good on the part of this 
modern agency for promoting the spiritual wel¬ 
fare of young men. 

Another means for increasing the efficiency of 
general secretaries is a biennial conference. An 
indication of their value is furnished by Mr. 
Oates’ study of The Religious Condition of Young 
Men ,, mentioned in the first chapter, it having 
been prepared for one of the conferences. The 
reception of this paper, which was based on care¬ 
ful sociological research by Mr. Oates and his 
associates, and the demand for it in book form, 
are hopeful signs for the future of Association 
work. 

g. women's auxiliaries 

While the work of the Associations is all for 
men it is by no means all done by them, and no 




194 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


survey of their manifold activities would be com¬ 
plete without recognition of the help often ren¬ 
dered by large-hearted women. Over five hundred 
Associations are blessed with such organizations, 
which not only provide financial support but by 
wise counsel and manifold service promote their 
efficiency, especially in social lines. The Wo¬ 
men’s Auxiliary of the International Committee 
has given special attention to work among sol¬ 
diers and sailors, and the splendid Navy build¬ 
ing in Brooklyn is one result of their consecrated 
efforts. 


H. YOUNG MEN NOT REACHED 

Human limitations are such, and wisely, that no 
one organization can do everything. With all 
their manifold activities and magnificent achieve¬ 
ments, there is much that the Associations have 
not yet been able to do or even attempt. When 
it is remembered that the movement has but 
recently passed the semi-centennial mark, and 
that its present condition is the result of the 
work of men still in the prime of life, it is seen 
to be but in its infancy. Without the slightest 
disparagement, therefore, attention is here turned 
to fields yet untouched. 

With the exception of the Student and Indian 
Departments, Associations are found almost 
exclusively in the larger towns and cities, yet 
even here the vast majority of young men are un¬ 
reached. For example, in five hundred towns 




THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION I95 

and cities having a population in 1900 of over 
six million men from sixteen to forty-four inclu¬ 
sive, less than 3 per cent of them were members 
of Associations; in forty-eight Illinois towns and 
cities, less than 2 per cent; in Chicago, a little 
over 1 per cent. 1 The total male population of 
the United States between sixteen and forty- 
four, the ordinary range of Association ages, is 
nineteen million, while the total Association 
membership, exclusive of boys, is about two hun¬ 
dred and thirty thousand, or 1.2 per cent. Even 
after making a generous allowance for the large 
and valuable influence exerted indirectly, it is 
evident that the Associations have made little 
more than a good beginning. 

Attention has already been called to the fact 
that the industrial classes are more largely un¬ 
reached than any other, and to the new movement 
in their behalf. The classification of the four 
thousand members of the central department in 
Chicago shows this with almost startling clear¬ 
ness: clerks, 50.2 per cent; managers, 15.4 per 
cent; skilled laborers, 10.3 per cent; professional 
men, 8.7 per cent; students, 5.8 per cent; un¬ 
skilled laborers, 1.8 per cent; unclassified, 7.6 
per cent. 2 While the preponderance of clerks 
and managers is in this case due in some measure 
to the location of the department in the heart 
of the business district, these figures would 
fairly hold for city Associations in general. 


1 Religious Condition of Young Men, p. 32. 8 Same, p. 36. 







196 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


Very few smaller towns have as yet been 
touched. It has been found by dear experience 
that unless the Association can have the per¬ 
manent basis and acknowledged standing 
afforded by a building of its own, it is apt to 
have a short existence. Every such failure makes 
a later and larger work far more difficult. For 
this same reason the young men of the great 
agricultural class are as yet unreached. A new 
and growing movement for county work has 
recently been inaugurated that promises much for 
the help of young men in small towns and rural 
districts. “Fourteen counties are now organized 
with couiity secretaries in six states. Four states 
have assistant secretaries for the development 
of the work, and four others are about to under¬ 
take it.’’ 1 A special secretary for county work 
will probably be appointed by the International 
Committee in the near future. 

A smaller but by no means unimportant class of 
men as yet unreached by the Associations is made 
up of sailors in our merchant marine, both on 
salt and fresh water. Their needs, however, 
have not been forgotten, and provision will be 
made for them as soon as possible. 

On the whole, it may be said that the Associa¬ 
tions are fully alive to the needs of the millions 
of young men yet beyond their influence, and 
that their work will be extended as rapidly as may 
be made possible by the growing means at their 


1 Association Men , January, 1903, p. 164. 





THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 197 


command, and at the same time consistent with 
safe and solid growth. 

The words of the venerable founder in his 
New Year’s message for 1903 well express the 
principles and aims of the movement: 

“The Young Men’s Christian Association is 
essentially a ‘Forward Movement.’ Every year 
has been marked by growth. But ‘Go’ must still 
be our watchword. We have as yet but touched 
the fringe of our possibilities. The world is our 
territory. ‘Go ye,’ says'our Master, ‘into all the 
world.’ Life becomes increasingly strenuous. 
Problems press for solution. The air is full of 
questionings and inquiries. As Associations, we 
must keep in touch with the spirit of the age, 
not to yield in any measure to its seductive influ¬ 
ences but to permeate it with the elevating prin¬ 
ciples of Christianity, to lift its standards, to 
ennoble its aims, to raise its ideals, and to win 
young men to Jesus Christ. This has been the 
object of the Young Men’s Christian Association 
since its formation, and it is upon these lines 
that we go forward. We will go in the strength 
of the Lord God.” 1 —George Williams , Knight. 

I. THE RELATION OF THE ASSOCIATIONS TO THE 
CHURCHES 

All who have had any experience in Association 
work recognize this as a practical problem of 
much importance, and it deserves consideration 


1 Association Men , January, 1903, p. 166. 




198 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


even in so necessarily brief a discussion as the 
limits of this study compel. Among the ques¬ 
tions sent to pastors were these: (1) What do you 
think of the spiritual results of Young Men’s 
Christian Association work? (2) How could its 
spiritual efficiency be increased? (3) Is it a rival 
or helper of the local church, and wherein? (4) 
How could the two be better coordinated in work 
for young men? 

1) To the first, fifteen replied, excellent; thirty- 
seven, good; nine, fair; five, not commensurate 
with other work and the labor involved; twenty, 
small; five, unsatisfactory; fifteen, practically no 
results. 

2) To the second the replies were much more 
scattered. Twenty-five suggested a greater em¬ 
phasis on the distinctly spiritual work; twelve, 
closer cooperation between the Associations and 
the churches; ten, more broad-minded and deeply 
spiritual secretaries and officers; two, increased 
emphasis on intellectual as distinguished from 
merely emotional religion; two, a broader policy, 
not too strictly evangelical. Among those from 
only one were: more reality in its theology; 
wider scope of Christian teaching; more common 
sense in religious instruction; more emphasis 
on practical Christian work and personal relation 
to the church; more of service for others and less 
of others for it; omit religious services and send 
members to church; magnify the functions of the 
local church; less “glad hand” and more manly 




THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION IQQ 


interest; while one pastor, who teaches a large 
and highly organized young men’s Bible class, 
such as those referred to in a preceding chapter, 
says: “I don’t know that its spiritual efficiency 
can be increased. The Association is an excres¬ 
cence on the body ecclesiastic, due to the failure 
of the church to do its duty.” 

3) Answers to the third question showed that 
sixty-nine regarded the Association as a helper 
of the local church, twenty-seven as a rival, and 
eight as neither one. 

4) For the closer coordination of the Associa¬ 
tions and the churches in their work for young 
men nine suggested more intimate relations 
between pastors and secretaries; seven, that the 
churches recognize the Associations as their insti¬ 
tutional departments for young men; seven, that 
each church have its young men organized into a 
branch of the Association; ten, that mutual sym¬ 
pathy and interest be promoted by all possible 
means; three, that the Association hold evening 
services in the churches; five, that there be some 
organic connection, as by pastoral supervision, 
joint committees, and the election of directors 
by the churches; while three wish no attempt at 
coordination, but prefer that the churches should 
look after all the spiritual interests of young men, 
leaving to the Associations the physical mental 
and social interests. 

In this connection the words of Dr. Washing¬ 
ton Gladden are worth noting: “The work of the 




200 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


Young Men’s Christian Association must be done 
by the young men who are members of the 
churches, and the pastor will regard this as one 
of the fields in which his force is employed and 
will gladly surrender such of his young men as 
maybe needed to this important work. It is one 
of the cases in which the church, for Christ’s 
sake, loses its life that it may keep it unto life 
eternal.” 1 

It is to be remembered that these opinions are 
almost all from men who are pastors of large 
churches representing all denominations, and who 
have been more than ordinarily successful in deal¬ 
ing with young men. Fairness, as well as a desire 
to make this study one of real value, required 
that the secretaries also be asked to reply to sim¬ 
ilar inquiries, and the following were made: (i) 
Many pastors regard the Association as a rival; 
to what extent is this true, and if at all, how may 
it be obviated? (2) Wherein could your Associa¬ 
tion be of larger and more direct help to the 
churches? (3) Wherein could the churches be of 
larger and more direct help to your Association? 
(4) How could the two be more ^closely coordi¬ 
nated in work for young men? (5) Would Asso¬ 
ciation work be justifiable if confined to physical, 
educational and social lines, leaving^ all distinct¬ 
ively religious work to the churches? (6) Would 
such a strict division of labor be for the best inter¬ 
ests of young men, provided the churches would 


1 The Christian Pastor , p. 315. 




THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 201 


do all the religious work now done by the Asso¬ 
ciation? 

i) Some replies to the first expressed surprise 
that any pastor should consider the Association 
a rival, and suggested that all such needed educa¬ 
tion. Others were: “The Association is only a 
rival of the churches in the sense that they are 
rivals of each other. . . . Statistics show that 
the churches which give the Association the great¬ 
est support reap the greatest benefit. . . . The 
Association is an auxiliary of the churches; they 
have no more loyal helper. . . . Some pastors 
are jealous, others too busy (?), others not inter¬ 
ested; they don’t understand the Association. 
. . . The Association is an interdenominational 
extension of the church; it is the church itself 
doing work for a special class. ... The Asso¬ 
ciation is not an outside agency, but rather a 
special cooperative movement of the churches 
to do work made necessary by modern condi¬ 
tions. . . . The Association is not a result of 
any failure of the church to do its duty nor a 
reproach to its barrenness, but a result of its 
God-given fertility of resource and adaptability 
to changing circumstances.” 

Several of these replies are by secretaries of 
long experience and national reputation, and 
are worthy of careful consideration. The last 
three, in particular, clearly define the relation of 
the Association to the churches, and make it 
plain that when properly conducted it is in no 




202 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


way a rival, but rather a great aid. That in some 
cases secretaries are over-zealous and short¬ 
sighted, as one who is reported to visit a con¬ 
verts’ meeting for the purpose of capturing the 
affections of any promising young man and 
diverting his interest to the Association, is just as 
true as that an occasional pastor has such an 
exaggerated sense of the importance of his own 
organization and such a narrow vision of the 
extent of Christ’s kingdom as to regard the Asso¬ 
ciation with petty jealousy. 

2) On the increased helpfulness of the Associa¬ 
tion to the churches the most important answers 
were: “By greater care in introducing men to 
church membership and training men for church 
service. ... By a stronger religious work lead¬ 
ing to church membership. . . . By securing their 
cooperation in practical service. ... By com¬ 
pelling each active member to do a certain 
amount of church work. By a fuller realization 
of the Association’s dependence on the churches 
and more effort to get young men into their serv¬ 
ices. . . . By a church committee in each Asso¬ 
ciation to secure the attendance of men upon 
church services.” One secretary frankly avows 
his belief that “it is not the special mission of the 
Association to help the church, as is often said, 
but to advance the kingdom of Christ.” This is 
unquestionably true, for this is the supreme busi¬ 
ness not only of the Associations and the 
churches and every organization of Christians, 




THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 203 


but also of every follower of Christ. Yet, since 
the usefulness of all such organizations is in¬ 
creased by mutual helpfulness, the question of 
how this may be better secured is worth serious 
consideration. 

3) On the increased helpfuness of churches to 
the Association the secretaries wrote: “By 
heartier personal and financial cooperation. . . . 
By following up young men referred to them. 
(Several reported a failure of pastors at this 
point, for example: “Two years ago I gave to 
seventeen pastors the names of eighty-five young 
men who had come to this city, many of whom 
were members of churches in other places, sug¬ 
gesting that they be called upon and interested 
in the church. The pastors represented denomi¬ 
nations preferred by the young men. I asked for 
a reply and heard from only four or five. This 
suggests one of the difficulties the Association 
has to face.”) ... By official recognition of the 
Association as an arm of the church. ... By 
regarding the Association as its institutional 
department for young men. ... By trusting it 
and praying for it. ” 

4) In addition to the foregoing, closer coordi¬ 
nation of these two agencies for promoting Christ’s 
kingdom among young men was suggested in 
the following particulars: “Federate all the men’s 
clubs and Bible classes with the Association in a 
campaign for the men of the whole community. 
. . . By each taking the other into account in 




204 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


planning various lines of work and cooperating 
in definite efforts more frequently. . . . By each 
church appointing a committee of workers to 
represent it in the Association.” The most 
comprehensive reply is from a secretary of inter¬ 
national prominence, and is worth quoting entire. 
“The individual church is simply a group of 
believers united for effective work as witnesses 
for Christ. Their chief function is not their own 
culture but the extension of the Kingdom among 
those who are not believers. The Association is 
simply a cooperative movement of a number of 
such groups trying to do a special work, with 
special machinery and special leadership. The 
results should go back to the groups which 
formed the corporation. It is simply their 
agency and exists for their help in doing their 
legitimate work. The two may be better coordi¬ 
nated by these means: (i) By better and more 
thorough organization of the Association’s mem¬ 
bers, who come from the churches, that there may 
be more effective ‘living links’ between the 
churches and their down-town agency. (2) By 
greater efforts on the part of pastors to use the 
Association according to its purpose and charac¬ 
ter. (3) By regarding the Association more and 
more as a training school, a means of preparing 
young men for more effective work, both in and 
out of the local church. (4) By a larger meas¬ 
ure of mutual love, confidence and sympathy. 
By regarding all branches of the church’s activ- 




THE YOUNG MEN*S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 205 


ities, both denominational, interdenominational, 
and undenominational, as simply parts of the 
Master’s great plan for bringing in the King¬ 
dom. Rivalry is as foreign to this ideal as is 
unrighteousness. It usually comes from the 
same source, and ought to be regretted, con¬ 
fessed, and forsaken.” 

5) To the fifth, most replies were emphatically 
negative: “No; take out the religious activities, 
which we seek to make pervade all departments, 
and as well run a club. . . . Such a policy would 
kill the movement within a decade. . . . When 
railroad officials and business men testify that 
the religious element of the Association vitalizes 
it and thus differentiates it from an ordinary club, 
it is well to hold to the present policy.” A 
few, however, recognize the not distinctively 
religious (this is far from saying irreligious) work 
as of so high a value as to give an affirmative 
answer, for example: “Yes; the Association 
would still be the institutional department of 
the churches, and could do this work for all, and 
also afford a common meeting place for their 
members.” None, however, favor such a limita¬ 
tion. 

6) A practically unanimous reply in the negative 
was given to the sixth question: “Many young 
men can be reached religiously by the Associa¬ 
tion before they are willing to assume church 
obligations. . . . The Association furnishes the 
best opportunity for training young men in Chris- 





206 the church and young men 


tian work, and for their direct influence upon 
those who are not Christians. . . . The Associa¬ 
tion can do a religious work as a union body that 
the individual church can not do; it is the best 
expression of practical church union ever devel¬ 
oped.” 

From these replies, both by pastors and secre¬ 
taries, it is evident that there is much need of 
closer coordination between the Associations and 
the churches. While Association work is clearly 
a branch of church work, there is probably no 
need of any organic union; in fact, direct control 
by the churches in any one city would probably 
impair its efficiency on the whole. The govern¬ 
ment of each Association is already and irrevo¬ 
cably in the hands of a few church members, 
but there is need of a better understanding of 
its work and a more generous sympathy and 
cooperation on the part of all. It is not strange 
that these important elements have been lack¬ 
ing, often to a serious extent. The churches rep¬ 
resent an institution nearly nineteen centuries 
old, whereas the Association has but recently 
passed its half-century mark. The former are 
naturally conservative, the latter nothing if not 
progressive. Moreover both are human. Perfect 
Associations and secretaries have not yet been 
found, any more than perfect churches and pas¬ 
tors. There is large room for improvement on 
both sides, both in breadth of vision concerning 
their mission for the advancement of the world- 




THE YOUNG Men’s CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 207 


wide kingdom of Christ, rather than merely that 
of a single organization, and in depth of spiritual 
life as the first essential factor in the promotion 
of this lofty end. With these improvements, 
which are slowly but surely coming to pass, will 
come the closer union in action, as well as in 
spirit and purpose, of these mighty agencies for 
the spiritual betterment of young men, and the 
greatly increased efficiency of each. 




CHAPTER IX 


THE SALVATION ARMY 

Although not organized as a church, either 
local or denominational, nor to any extent affili¬ 
ated with any church or churches, the Salvation 
Army, no less than the Young Men’s Christian 
Association, is distinctively a form of church 
work, in that it exists primarily for promoting 
the interests of the kingdom of Christ. While but 
little of its varied activity is particularly for 
young men, such large numbers of them are 
reached and helped by its general work as to 
make a survey of it interesting to all who are con¬ 
cerned for the spiritual welfare of the future rulers 
of the nation. 


A. RISE AND PROGRESS 

The Salvation Army owes its beginning and 
growth, under the great Captain of our salvation, 
to one of the marked personalities of current his¬ 
tory. There is probably no living man in Chris¬ 
tian circles whose name is more familiar, the 
world around, than that of the Army’s founder 
and earthly head, General Booth. 

Born in Nottingham, England, April io, 1829, 
William Booth was converted at the age of fif¬ 
teen through the preaching of the gospel in a 
208 


THE SALVATION ARMY 


209 


Wesleyan chapel, although he had been brought 
up in the Church of England. His ardent 
nature led him to engage almost at once in open- 
air meetings in the poorer districts, and as a boy 
preacher he attracted much attention. His native 
capacity for leadership quickly gathered a group 
of fellow young men who held cottage prayer- 
meetings on week nights, and marched singing 
through the streets. Appointed a local preacher 
at seventeen, he visited near-by villages on Sun¬ 
days, being actively engaged in business during 
the week. At the age of twenty-three he gave 
up a promising mercantile life and became an 
evangelist, and the next thirteen years witnessed 
many revival campaigns of a stirring and suc¬ 
cessful character. 

His earlier experiences had led him into close 
sympathy with the poorer classes of the working 
people, and he observed with sadness that few of 
them would come within church walls to hear 
the gospel. The conviction grew that it was his 
special mission to carry the good news of salva¬ 
tion to these “godless, churchless, hopeless, and 
often homeless masses.” He did not want to 
start a new ecclesiastical organization for the 
purpose, and it was only after trying in vain to 
secure the adoption of the new work for the un¬ 
churched millions by some one of the existing 
denominations that he finally established the 
Christian Mission, becoming its superintendent. 

For the beginning of the new effort to carry 



210 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


the gospel to those who would not come to it, 
he chose the most unpromising field in all Eng¬ 
land. “An old tent in a disused Quaker burial 
ground was the birthplace of the Mission. It 
was amid the worse than heathen pandemonium of 
blasphemy and ribaldry, for which the East End 
of London is so notorious, that the movement 
was cradled. . . . Among the vagabonds and out¬ 
casts who swarm this district he found the very 
lowest level of the social strata. Yet here he 
discovered ‘all manner of precious stones’ with 
which the foundations of the Salvation Army 
New Jerusalem were to be garnished; in the 
ocean depths of sin he found material for the 
‘pearly gates.’ ” 1 

But the denizens of London’s social dumping 
ground did not receive the new work with open 
arms. When, after two months the tent was 
blown down and the meetings were transferred 
to an old warehouse, stones and mud and fire¬ 
works were thrown through the open windows in 
summer, and trains of gunpowder set off in the 
room. “But our people got used to this, shout¬ 
ing ‘Hallelujah’ when the crackers exploded and 
the powder flashed. Doubtless many were fright¬ 
ened away, but it was an admirable training 
ground for the development of the Salvation 
Army spirit.’’ 2 So with trying experiences but 
always with growing success, the heroic workers 
of the Christian Mission kept on for thirteen 


1 William Booth, p. 21. 


2 Same, p. 23. 




THE SALVATION ARMY 


211 


years. Although many calls came from outside 
places, whither converts had carried their fiery 
zeal, they were responded to but sparingly, the 
main efforts being centered upon putting the 
East London work on a firm basis, and the rais¬ 
ing up and training of a thoroughly qualified band 
of workers. 

One day in 1878, while the always busy leader 
was dictating an annual report to his secretary, 
the latter wrote: “The Christian Mission is a 
volunteer army.” As if by inspiration, he leaned 
over the secretary’s shoulder and wrote the word 
‘salvation’ instead of ‘volunteer’ and the new name 
was forthwith adopted. With the change of name 
came a change of organization. For all these 
years the Christian Mission had been virtually an 
army, conducting a vigorous campaign against 
sin, and the change of organization to a military 
basis was natural and easy. The General Sup¬ 
erintendent of the Mission readily became 
(though not of his own suggestion) the General 
of the Army, and other officials easily became 
subordinate officers of corresponding rank. 
Groups of believers in various stations became 
corps and a flag was adopted, its blue border 
typifying holiness, its red field the blood of 
Christ, and its yellow star the fiery baptism of 
the Holy Ghost—hence the familiar motto, 
“Blood and Fire.’’ It remained only to adopt a 
uniform as a perpetual reminder to the soldier 
of his allegiance and as a constant witness to the 



212 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


world, and the new Army was ready to carry to 
greater victories the warfare so long waged by 
the Mission. 

Its greater prominence brought greater opposi¬ 
tion, not only from those whom it sought to help 
but even from those who ought to have welcomed 
it as a valiant and valuable ally. The press 
wrote it up only to cry it down, and one religious 
dignitary discovered in it the Beast of Revela¬ 
tion. Others prophesied the speedy disintegra¬ 
tion of this “rope of sand,” and still others 
discovered its already begun decay. But its 
dauntless leaders gave no heed. Whether attacked 
by East London mobs or lampooned by West 
London aristocrats, the Army moved straight on. 
The General’s talented wife, affectionately called 
the mother of the Salvation Army, and since 
passed from the church militant to the church 
triumphant, wrote to a friend: “We go on through 
floods and storms and flames. God is with us, 
and out of this movement He is going to resusci¬ 
tate the acts of the apostles. We see the pillar 
of cloud, and after it we must go. It may be that 
the rich and genteel will draw off from us. They 
did so when the Master went to the vulgar crowd 
and when He neared the vulgar cross. But we 
can not help it. We are determined to cleave to 
the cross, yea, the cross between two thieves, if 
that will save the people.’’ 1 

The result of that faith and determination to 


l William Booth , p. 36, 





THE SALVATION ARMY 


213 


keep up the fight in the face of all obstacles is 
manifest to-day in the world-wide spread of the 
movement. Not only in England and America 
but throughout Europe and also in many places in 
Africa, Asia, and the Islands of the Sea, and 
especially in Australia, this vigorous agency for 
uplifting fallen humanity is doing a great work. 
“They are to be found to-day in forty seven 
countries and colonies. There are 15,000 workers 
who give their whole time to the work, and 40,000 
unpaid local officers who support themselves and 
give their spare time. Six thousand centers have 
been established, where 84,000 meetings are held 
weekly (half in the open air) and in which a 
quarter of a million persons publicly profess 
salvation in a year. To the poor the gospel is 
being preached. The churchless are being 
reached.” 1 It is the boast of Britain that the 
roll of England’s morning drum beat is heard 
around the world. So also is the roll of the 
Salvation Army’s evening drum beat, summoning 
its brave soldiers not to a death-dealing but to a 
life-bringing warfare in the name of Jehovah of 
Hosts. 

B. WORK IN THE UNITED STATES 

In 1871 a zealous worker of the Christian Mis¬ 
sion, who had gone to Canada, crossed over to 
Cleveland, Ohio. “Here his spirit was deeply 
stirred by scenes resembling those in East Lon- 


1 Light in Darkness. 







214 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


don. But there was no similar agency for grap- 
ling with the evil, nor was there much hope that 
Mr. Booth could be induced to send one of his 
evangelists to so distant a place when his hands 
were already full. So with the blessed audacity 
which has characterized the Salvation Army from 
its beginning, he resolved, single-handed, to 
‘hoist the Mission flag’ on American soil.” 1 
With a few kindred spirits a branch of the 
Mission was established and correspondence be¬ 
gun with the founder in London. One of the 
letters from the superintendent contains these 
characteristic sentences: “Remember, quality is 
of far more importance than quantity. What your 
first little band is, succeeding societies will be. 
Therefore aim at thoroughness and whole-heart¬ 
edness in the company you associate with your, 
self. . . . Beware of men who will want to 
come in because they can be great among you 
and indulge the love of talking that exists in so 
many. One humble though illiterate worker, full 
of simplicity and the Holy Ghost, is worth a 
regiment of such. ... Go in with all your 
might for souls and for God.” 2 

Two years later the leader returned to London 
and the work was given up, but not without large 
good having been accomplished in saving souls 
and reclaiming backsliders. 

In 1879 a family who had been soldiers in the 
corps in Coventry, England, came to Philadel- 


1 William Booth, p. 48. 2 Same, p. 51. 




THE SALVATION ARMY 


215 


phia, and soon established the Army in the 
Quaker city. A band of eight workers, seven 
being the now well-known “Hallelujah Lassies,” 
was sent over by the General the following year, 
and the campaign of the Army in the United 
States thus inaugurated. On this side of the 
Atlantic too, though not to so great an extent 
as on the other, the work of the Army was begun 
and for a long time carried on in the face of great 
obstacles. Yet here, as there, patient endurance 
of persecution, due primarily to a misunderstand¬ 
ing of its motives and the strangeness to Ameri¬ 
cans of its methods, coupled with steady continu¬ 
ance in well-doing and an unswerving faith in its 
great Captain, have brought the Army to its 
present well-earned position of being undoubtedly 
the most zealous and aggressive of all the forces 
that are at work for helping this to become in 
truth what it is in name, a Christian nation, 
“whose God is Jehovah.” 

Although transplanted from England, the Army 
in this country is thoroughly an American insti¬ 
tution. The few foreign-born officers have be¬ 
come naturalized, and almost the entire rank and 
file are Americans by birth, excepting of course 
the few corps of foreign-speaking persons. It 
is incorporated under a special charter granted 
by the state of New York. All funds raised are 
used strictly for work in this country, with excep¬ 
tion of the proceeds of “Self-denial week,” which 
are used in its foreign mission work. The work 



216 the church and young men 


in the United States is under the supervision of 
Commander Frederick Booth-Tucker and his wife, 
she being a daughter of the General. The head¬ 
quarters are at 122 West 14th Street, New York 
City. 

An unfortunate division in its ranks a few years 
ago, resulting in the withdrawal of a small per¬ 
centage of its workers under the leadership of 
General Ballington Booth of New York City to 
found “The American Volunteers,” who are 
working on practically the same lines and in 
entire harmony with the Army, has but little if 
any retarded its progress. Some idea of its great 
work appears from the following figures for 1902: 1 


Officers, cadets and employees. 3,048 

Corps, outposts, slum posts, and social institutions, 911 

Accommodations in social institutions. 9,000 

Annual expense for American poor, exclusive of 

farm colonies. $480,000 

Annual provision of beds for the poor, .... 3,000,000 
Industrial homes, wood yards, and stores for un¬ 
employed, . ..... 53 

Accommodation (finding daily work for unem¬ 
ployed), . 650 

Annual income from their work,.$150,000 

Outside employment found for about. 25,000 

Farm colonies,. 3 

Acreage of same,. 2,800 

Colonists (men, women and children),. 400 

Rescue homes for fallen girls,. 21 

Accommodations in same. 500 

Girls passing through yearly. 1,800 


Light in Darkness. 
















THE SALVATION ARMY 


217 


Babies cared for in rescue homes daily, about. . . 160 

Passing though annually, about. 500 

Accommodations for children in orphanages . . 150 

Accommodations for children in day nurseries". . 100 

Chilren settled in colonies with their parents, about 250 
Children cared for in various ways annually, about 1,500 
Persons provided with Christmas dinners, clothing 

and toys.250,000 


The manifold nature of the work carried on is 
also evident from the following official statement: 
“The Salvation Army now operates in Chicago 
twelve English-speaking corps, six Swedish corps, 
one Norwegian corps, one German corps, three 
slum posts, two training schools, six working¬ 
men’s hotels, one working women’s hotel, one 
home for fallen girls, one maternity hospital, one 
slum nursery, one salvage warehouse, five salvage 
stores, one bureau for tracing missing relatives and 
friends.” The salvage warehouse and stores are 
for the sorting, storage and sale of second-hand 
goods. The former affords an easy and valuable 
work test for applicants for relief, especially men. 
No one who is willing and able to work need 
starve or be without shelter and bed. 

Probably most persons know the Salvation 
Army simply as a band of faithful soldiers who 
parade with flying flags and zealous musicians 
who “play with a loud noise” if not always 
“skilfully,” and hold meetings on the street 
corners, characterized by earnest singing, hearty 
testimonies, and fervid appeals. These meetings 
and those held in the “barracks” do indeed con- 






218 the church and young men 


stitute the chief feature of its work. It was 
begun as a mission for preaching the gospel to 
the churchless masses, and to this original pur¬ 
pose it has faithfully adhered, and in its prosecu¬ 
tion has been wonderfully blessed. But it has also 
realized, far more than most of its dignified 
churchly sisters, that salvation means more than 
merely rescuing a soul from a future hell and get¬ 
ting it safely landed in a far away heaven; that it 
means the saving of the whole man in his present 
life. Working almost exclusively among the 
poor and outcast, it has realized, far in advance 
of many social reformers, that this present saving 
of the whole man also involves the betterment of 
his external conditions, both individual and social. 

The extent to which the realization of both of 
these too long neglected truths has shaped the 
work of the Army is evident from the preceding 
summaries. These bare enumerations can give 
but a faint idea of the results which are being 
daily brought to pass in all of the larger and in 
many of the smaller cities of our country. Men 
and women, young men and young women, boys 
and girls, and helpless infants are daily being 
blessed by its manifold ministries of loving service 
in the name of Jesus Christ. 

The following editorial in the Chicago Record- 
Herald of November 19, 1902, is well deserved: 
“The demonstration in honor of General Booth, 
veteran founder of the Salvation Army, at the 
Auditorium on Monday evening, was an impres- 



THE SALVATION ARMY 


219 


sive tribute to a religion that is based upon the 
obligation of men to help each other. It was a 
magnificent popular tribute to a religion that 
comes about as near to exemplifying the practical 
teaching of Jesus as it is possible for fallible, 
finite minds to get in this world. 

“We do not know what Jesus would do about 
the drums, the cymbals, the songs set to populaf 
airs, and the other devices employed by the Sal¬ 
vationists to attract the attention of the heedless 
and indifferent. But it is safe to say that if He 
were on earth He would preach to the populace 
in the highways and byways, and He would kneel 
in the streets to pray for sinners with the Sal¬ 
vation Army lads and lassies. He would go with 
them to the slums of the cities where the hungry 
and destitute are fed and sheltered by the Army. 
His heart would be in their rescue work and He 
would lend a helping hand in the work of reclaim¬ 
ing the fallen and lifting up the degraded and 
dejected derelicts that make up the flotsam and 
jetsam of human misery and woe. It is not likely 
that He would neglect the rich, but the story of 
His earthly career justifies the conclusion that the 
work of the Salvation Army would commend 
itself to His deepest sympathy and support.” 

The leaves on this new branch are somewhat 
different from those on the older ones; yet there 
are no two leaves alike in the vegetable king¬ 
dom, why should they be expected in the spirit¬ 
ual? But its abundant fruit-bearing, shown by 






220 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


the redeemed lives of millions of human beings, 
testifies that it is truly abiding in the Vine, per¬ 
meated by His life and indwelt by His Spirit. 
Thus it answers the Master’s own test, “By their 
fruits ye shall know them,” and amply demon¬ 
strates its right to be considered among the 
church agencies for the spiritual betterment of 
young men. 




CHAPTER X 

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 

In the statistics given in the first chapter 
Roman Catholic churches were included with¬ 
out distinction from others, commonly called 
Protestant. To omit from this study of agencies 
for the spiritual betterment of young men one 
whose membership is approximately a third of 
that of all the churches in the United States, 
WK)uld not only be manifestly unfair to that great 
body but would also make the survey very 
deficient. 

A. GENERAL SITUATION 

Outside of the direct means, such as preaching, 
public worship, pastoral work, and instruction of 
the young, the Roman Catholic churches are 
doing not only absolutely but relatively far less 
than their Protestant neighbors. The general 
position is probably well expressed in a letter 
from a priest who is also a college president: 
“With us the great agencies for the spiritual 
betterment of young men are those established 
by God Himself, namely, the holy sacraments. ” 
Yet there is a growing recognition of the value of 
such secondary agencies as are employed, for 
example, in the institutional churches. The 
situation is thus put by a careful student of social 
conditions. 


221 


222 


THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


“The Roman Catholic Church has seemed to 
rely almost wholly upon the spiritual appeal. Yet 
she is not indifferent to modern conditions and is 
preparing to meet them. Her organizations are 
taking on more and more a social character. 
The Total Abstinence societies have often a con¬ 
siderable social element in connection with their 
work; some own their buildings, which are pro¬ 
vided with reading rooms, gymnasiums, and 
billiard halls. Such societies may be found at 
present in almost all of the large cities of the 
country. The lyceum is growing to be a very 
popular organization connected with Catholic 
parishes in working men’s districts. In the city 
of Baltimore lyceums were found in connection 
with no less than eight of the Catholic parishes of 
the city. The method is usually to occupy some 
building which is fitted up with means for social 
and athletic enjoyment. The three requirements 
for membership in a lyceum are that a man be a 
good Catholic, be of good moral character, and 
have some desire to improve himself. As a rule 
these lyceums are remarkably successful, and 
their membership aggregates many thousands in 
any city. Another social organization has just 
been planned by the Catholics, the Young Men’s 
Institute, patterned after the Young Men’s Chris¬ 
tian Association. In these ways the attitude of 
the Roman Catholic church is plainly visible.” 1 


1 Substitutes for the Saloon, p. 127. 





THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 223 


B. THE SODALITY 

This is the most distinctively spiritual of the 
organizations of and for young men. There 
are sodalities for different classes, as for married 
men, married women, young men, young women, 
boys, and girls. Members attend communion 
service in a body once a month, and their spirit¬ 
ual welfare is under the special care of a priest. 
Each sodality is an independent organization 
and shapes its own course. One in Chicago, for 
example, in addition to its distinctively spiritual 
work, has a gymnasium, holds social and musical 
entertainments, and occasionally indulges in 
amateur theatrical performances. In this parish 
there is a large building for the use of the sev¬ 
eral sodalities, corresponding in some respects 
to the parish house of an institutional church. 

C. THE YOUNG MEN’S INSTITUTE 

As already noted, this is a comparatively new 
organization, resembling in some respects the 
Young Men’s Christian Association. “Its objects 
are mutual aid and benevolence, the moral, 
social, and intellectual improvement of its mem¬ 
bers, and the proper development of sentiments 
of devotion to the Catholic Church and loyalty 
to our country, in accordance with its motto: 
Pro Deo , Pro Patria .” “No one shall be ad¬ 
mitted to membership unless he is a practical 
Catholic, of good moral character and standing in 
the community where he lives, and over the age 




224 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


of eighteen years.” The expression “practical 
Catholic” is thus defined: “It is a term used to 
designate a communicant who believes all the 
tenets of the church and complies with what are 
commonly known as its six precepts, namely: (i) 
To attend mass on Sunday and holy days of obli¬ 
gation. (2) To abstain from meat on Fridays and 
all fast days prescribed by the church. (3) To 
receive holy communion during the Easter time. 
(4) To go to confession once a year and during the 
Easter time. (5) To contribute to the support of 
the pastor. (6) Not to be married within the 
forbidden times, that is during Lent and Advent, 
or within forbidden degrees of kindred.” 

There are at present upwards of two hundred 
councils, as the local organizations are called, 
with twelve thousand members. The national 
body is known as the Supreme Council, and 
Mr. F. J. Kierce of San Francisco is the president. 

D. TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES 

1. The Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America. 
This is the largest of several similar organiza¬ 
tions, having about 1,200 societies and 100,000 
members. The general secretary is Mr. J. W. 
Logue of Philadelphia. 

2. The Knights of Father Mathew. This organi¬ 
zation is a branch of the preceding and has been 
in existence since 1881. Its purpose is thus 
stated: “The objects of the order shall be: first, 
to unite fraternally, practical male Catholics; to 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 225 


give all possible moral and material aid to its 
members and those dependent on them; by hold¬ 
ing moral, instructive and scientific lectures; by 
assisting its members to obtain employment; by 
encouraging them in the pursuit of their profes¬ 
sion, trade or occupation; and to provide means, 
from the proceeds of assessments upon its mem¬ 
bers, wherewith to assist its sick and disabled 
members, and for the relief and aid of the fami¬ 
lies, widows and orphans, or other beneficiaries 
of its deceased members. Second, to encourage 
all persons, by advice and example, to abstain 
from all intoxicating drinks and to cement the 
bonds of charity and union that should exist 
among all Catholics.” 

It was begun in Missouri and now operates in 
adjoining states, with a membership of about 5,000. 
The age limit is fifty and the extent to which the 
order appeals to young men is seen by the fact 
that the average age of members is twenty-five. 
That which most largely differentiates it from 
the Total Abstinence Union is its insurance 
feature, death benefits ranging from $100 to 
$2,000. Inasmuch as the violation of the pledge 
works the forfeiture of the violator’s member¬ 
ship, with the attendant loss of his insurance 
interest, and he can be reinstated only upon a 
new medical examination and the payment of a 
fine, violations are rare. These strict rules 
explain the comparatively small membership, as 
“many do not wish to risk so much on keeping 



226 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


the pledge.” Their efficiency appears from this 
statement by an official: “I was president for 
nine years of a total abstinence society that had 
no insurance feature, and its loss of membership 
through violations of the pledge amounted to 
75 per cent. With the branch of the Knights of 
Father Mathew that I am interested in the 
loss is only about 5 per cent.” 

The local organizations are called councils, each 
of which provides such social, educational or other 
additional features as it sees fit. A summel 
encampment for boys is conducted by the 
Chicago councils, they being eligible to mem¬ 
bership at the age of twelve. The oversight of 
the spiritual affairs of the order is entrusted to 
the Supreme Spiritual Director, who is always a 
clergyman. The members of each local council 
are required to attend communion in a body once 
a year. The chief official is Mr. W. H. O’Brien 
of St. Louis. 


E. FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS 

Membership in secret societies being forbid¬ 
den by the rules of the Roman Catholic Church, 
a number of fraternal bodies have been organ¬ 
ized within its ranks, of which the following will 
serve as representatives: 

1. The Knights of Columbus. This society has 
been in existence over twenty years and has a 
membership of nearly 100,000. Its purposes are 
the promotion of social and intellectual inter- 




THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 227 


course and the providing of life and disability 
insurance. No person is eligible to membership 
who is connected with the manufacture or sale 
of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. There 
are over seven hundred local councils, under the 
direction of a national council, with headquarters 
at New Haven, Connecticut. Mr. Daniel Col¬ 
well is the secretary. 

2. The Catholic Order of Foresters. The object of 
this organization is thus stated: “To promote 
friendship, unity and true Christian charity among 
its members: friendship, in assisting each other 
by every honorable means; unity, in associating 
together for mutual support of one another when 
sick or in distress, and in making suitable pro¬ 
vision for widows, orphans and dependents of 
deceased members; true Christian charity, in 
doing unto each other as we would have others 
do unto us.” While its primary business is that 
of providing insurance for its 110,000 members, 
spiritual interests are also fostered by a provision 
requiring all members to maintain their standing 
as practical Catholics. Although it is a lay organ¬ 
ization and not under direct ecclesiastical control, 
“its rules and regulations conform strictly to the 
rules and discipline of the Catholic Church.” 
The average age of members is thirty-four. The 
chief executive officer is Mr. Thomas H. Cannon 
of Chicago. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 


This list of books is given to help those who 
may wish to read further upon any of the lines 
sketched in the foregoing pages. Nearly all have 
been read at least in part by the writer and are 
believed to be trustworthy. No attempt has 
been made to make the list exhaustive—it is a 
selection rather than a collection. The books 
cited in each chapter are listed under correspond¬ 
ing sections, with additions. In the last section 
are several of general interest, all of which are 
commended for reading by young men to promote 
their own spiritual welfare. All may be ordered 
through local booksellers or will be sent by pub¬ 
lishers postpaid, except those marked net . 

I 

J. F. Oates. The Religious Condition of Young Men. 

Young Men’s Christian Association, Chicago, $1.00. 

S. L. Gulick. The Growth of the Kingdom of God. F. H. 
Revell Co., Chicago, $1.50. 

J. W. Clokey. Dying at the Top. United Presbyterian 
Board of Publication, Pittsburg, $0.10. 

Josiah Strong. Our Country. The Baker and Taylor Co., 
New York, $0.60. 

Benjamin Kidd. Social Evolution. MacMillan Co., New 
York, $1.00. 


228 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


229 


II 

G. A. Coe. The Spiritual Life. Eaton & Mains, New 
York, $1.00. 

G. A. Coe. The Religion of a Mature Mind. F. H. Revell 
Co., Chicago, net, $1.35. 

E. D. Starbuck. The Psychology of Religion. Charles 
Scribner’s Sons, New York, $1.50. 

Henry Drummond. Natural Law in the Spiritual World. 

James Pott & Co., New York, $1.00. 

L. B. Sperry. Confidential Talks with Young Men. F. 

H. Revell Co., Chicago, $0.75. 

Sylvanus Stall. What a Young Man Ought to Know. Vir 
Publishing Co., Philadelphia, net, $1.00. 

Sylvanus Stall. What a Boy Ought to Know. Vir Publish¬ 
ing Co., Philadelphia, net, $1.00. 

III 

Washington Gladden. The Young Men and the Churches. 

The Congregational Publishing Society, Boston, $0.10. 
Josiah Strong. The Times and Young Men. The Baker & 
Taylor Co., New York, $0.75. 

G. A. Miller. Problems of the Town Church. F. H. 
Revell Co., Chicago, net, $0.75. 

E. W. Bok. The Young Man and the Church. Henry 
Altemus, Philadelphia, $0.25. 

Cortland Myers. Why Men Do Not Go to Church. Funk 
& Wagnalls Co., New York, net, §0.60. 

Charles Stelzle. The Working Man and Social Problems. 

F. H. Revell Co., Chicago, net, $0.75. 

R. A. Torrey. How to Work for Christ. F. H. Revell Co., 
Chicago, $2.50. 

R. A. Torrey. How to Bring Men to Christ. F. H. Revell 
Co., Chicago, $0.75. 

H. C. Trumbull. Individual Work for Individuals. Inter¬ 
national Committee Y. M. C. A., New York, $0.75. 

Washington Gladden and others. Parish Problems. The 
Century Co., New York, $2.00. 





230 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


Washington Gladden. The Christian Pastor and the Work¬ 
ing Church. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 
$2.50. 

Christianity Practically Applied, being the Report of the 
International Christian Conference, held in connection 
with the World’s Congress, Chicago, 1893. The Baker 
& Taylor Co., New York, 2 Vols., each, $2.00. 


IV 

H. C. Trumbull. Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school. 

Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, $2.00. 

H. C. Trumbull. Teaching and Teachers. Charles Scrib¬ 
ner’s Sons, New York, $1.25. 

History of Class Number Eight. H. C. Houston, Urbana, 
Ohio. $0.75. 

D. C. Cook. The Gospel for Boys. D. C. Cook Publish¬ 

ing Co., Chicago, $0.10. 

E. D. Burton and Shailer Mathews. Principles and Ideals 

for the Sunday-school. The University of Chicago 
Press, Chicago, net, $1.00. 

A. P. Foster. Manual of Sunday-school Methods. The 
Union Press, Philadelphia, $0.75. 

W. E. Hatcher. The Pastor and the Sunday-school. S. S. 
Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Nashville, 
Tenn., $0.75. 

M. C. Brown. Sunday-school Movements in America. 

F. H. Revell Co., Chicago, $1.25. 

G. W. Mead. Modern Methods in Sunday-school Work. 

Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, net, $1.50. 

Proceedings of the First Convention of the Religious Educa¬ 
tion Association, Chicago, 1903. The Religious Educa¬ 
tion Association, 153 La Salle St., Chicago, $1.00. 

A. F. Schauffler. Ways of Working. W. A. Wilde Co., 
Boston, $1.00. 

J. H. Vincent. The Modern Sunday-school. Eaton & 
Mains, New York, $0.90. 




BIBLIOGRAPHY 


231 


Amos R. Wells. Sunday-school Success. F. H. Revell 
Co., Chicago, $1.25. 

W. B. Forbush. The Boy Problem. The Pilgrim Press, 
Boston, $0.75. 

J. M. Gregory. The Seven Laws of Teaching. Pilgrim 
Press, Boston, net, $0.50. 

Alvah Hovey and J. M. Gregory. The Bible, and How to 
Teach It. The Griffith & Rowland Press, Philadelphia, 
net, $0.25. 

W. H. Hall. Guide Boards for Teachers. J. D. Wattles, 
Philadelphia, $0.75. 

V 

F. E. Clark. Training the Church of the Future. Funk & 
Wagnalls, New York, net, $0.75. 

F. E. Clark. Young People’s Prayer-Meetings. Funk & 

Wagnalls, New York, $0.75. 

Washington Gladden. The Christian Pastor. See III. 
Proceedings R. E. A. Convention, 1903. See IV. 

VI 

Christianity Practically Applied. See III. 

G. W. Mead. Modern Methods in Church Work. Dodd, 
Mead & Co., New York, $1.50. 

John Clark Hill. The Fishin’ Jimmy Club. Presbyterian 
Board of Publication, Chicago, $0.25. 

VII 

Edward Judson. The Institutional Church. Lentilhon & 
Co., New York, net, $0.60. 

G. W. Mead. Modern Methods. See VI. 

Josiah Strong. The New Era. Baker & Taylor Co., New 
York, $0.75. 

Josiah Strong. The Next Great Awakening. Baker & 
Taylor Co., New York, $0.75. 

Josiah Strong. Religious Movements for Social Betterment. 
Baker & Taylor Co., New York, $0.50. 








232 THE CHURCH AND YOUNG MEN 


Josiah Strong. The Twentieth Century City. Baker & 
Taylor Co., New York, $0.50. 

Raymond Calkins. Social Substitutes for the Saloon. 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, net, $1.30. 

VIII 

L. L. Doggett. History of the Y. M. C. A. International 
Committee Y. M. C. A., New York, $1.00. 

Jubilee of Work for Young Men, being the Report of the 
Convention held in Boston, 1901, commemorating the 
semi-centennial of Y. M. C. A. work in North America. 
International Committee Y. M. C. A., New York, $1.75. 
Religious Condition of Young Men. See I. 

The Christian Pastor. See III. 

H. S. Ninde. The Young Men’s Christian Associations of 
North America. American Institute of Social Service, 
New York, $0.50. 

World Wide Evangelism, being the Report of the last 
Student Volunteer Convention, Toronto, 1902. Inter¬ 
national Committee Y. M. C. A., New York, net, $1.50. 
Hand Book of the History, Organization and Methods of 
Association Work. International Committee Y. M. C. A., 
New York, $1.00. 

A list of the many other publications of the International 
Committee, including a large number of stereopticon slides 
of both home and foreign scenes, may be had upon applica¬ 
tion. 

IX and X 

So far as known to the writer there are no books concern¬ 
ing the work presented in these chapters. The information 
was secured by personal interviews and from pamphlets 
furnished by the various organizations. 

GENERAL 

The Bible, American Standard Edition of the Revised 
Version. Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York, net $0.50 
and up. 




BIBLIOGRAPHY 


233 


D. W. Faunce. A Young Man’s Difficulties with His Bible. 
American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, 
net, $0.25. 

R. E. Speer. Things That Make a Man. Westminster 
Press, Philadelphia, $0.10. 

F. W. Gunsaulus. Young Men in History. F. H. Revell 

Co., Chicago, $0.25. 

N. D. Hillis. How the Inner Light Failed. F. H. Revell 
Co., Chicago, $0.25. 

N. D. Hillis. A Man’s Value to Society. F. H. Revell 
Co., Chicago, $1.25. 

N. D. Hillis. The Investment of Influence. F. H. Revell 
Co., Chicago, $1.25. 

W. F. Crafts. Successful Men of To-day. Funk & Wag- 
nalls, New York, $1.00. 

W. A. Bodell. The Spiritual Athlete. F. H. Revell Co., 
Chicago, $0.35. 

Thain Davidson. Thoroughness. F. H. Revell Co., Chi¬ 
cago, $0.35. 

Mark Hopkins. Modern Skepticism in Its Relation to 
Young Men. F. H. Revell Co., Chicago, $0.25. 

T. T. Munger. On the Threshold. Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co., Boston, $1.00. 

C. H. Parkhurst. Talks to Young Men. The Century Co. 
New York, $1.00. 

James Stalker. Men and Morals. F. H. Revell Co., 
Chicago, $0.75. 

H. C. Trumbull. Border Lines in the Field of Doubtful 
Practices. F. H. Revell Co., Chicago, $1.00. 

J. I. Vance. Royal Manhood. F. H. Revell Co.,Chicago,$1.25. 
J. I. Vance. The Young Man Four Square. F. H. Revell 
Co., Chicago, $0.35. 

Beverly Warner. The Young Man in Modern Life. Dodd, 
Mead & Co., New York, net, $0.85. 

G. C. Lorimer. Messages of Today to the Men of Tomor¬ 

row. American Baptist Publication Society, Philadel¬ 
phia, net, $1.10. 






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